Early Intervention
by Tribal Matriach
Summary: A change in the past makes an early intervention necessary for the Cullens
1. Chapter 1

1

**February 2001**

Bella waved goodbye to her teacher as they split up at the end of the road. Almost as soon as she was out of sight Bella tripped over a loose paving flag and landed on her hands and knees. She silently used a word that she wasn't supposed to know when she noticed her school shoes were scuffed at the toes from the fall. She knew full well that she couldn't get another pair for a couple of months and wondered if a black sharpie would cover the damage enough for the others at school not to notice.

She blushed and looked around quickly to see if anyone had noticed her trip, but the road was empty as usual at that time of day so she wiped her grazed hands onto her backpack which had fallen off her shoulder, to dislodge the small stones stuck in her skin and inspected her knees. The last thing she wanted to do that night was try and get blood spots out of her uniform. Luckily even though the scrapes were painful there wasn't any sign of flowing blood. Even the thought of it made her lightheaded and she took a deep breath to make sure she wasn't going to faint before getting to her feet.

Shaking her head at her own clumsiness she made her way to the small house she lived in with her mother and let herself in with her key. Even though she was late home from school she knew her mother wouldn't be in as yet.

She flicked the light on and sighed heavily as she tried the useless switch one more time. She knew that it wasn't a problem with the bulb… once more Renée had forgotten to pay the electric bill, they had been cut off.

At least the gas would still be on, even without lights they could still manage, she thought as she turned on the ring and lit a match. She put a pan of water on to boil… it would have to be noodles for dinner again as she hadn't gone to the store today, so there wasn't much in to eat.

The lack of electricity was annoying, but not the end of the world. Unlike most of her peers she had never been one for watching too much TV anyway, and there was no other sort of entertainment in the house that needed electric, so it was good that she preferred to read a book. She rummaged in the pantry and took out the emergency supply of candles, she got a saucer and, lighting the wick off the gas flame, she dripped the first drops of molten wax onto the pot and stuck the candle upright.

It was cold in the house, and going to get colder… the start of February wasn't the best time of year to lose the heating, even in Phoenix it got cold at night in winter, and this winter had been particularly cold. Carefully shielding the candle she made her way to her bedroom and grabbed the quilt off her bed, she checked Renée's room… of course she wasn't there, but Bella picked up the dirty clothes off the floor and made her way to the washing machine, she loaded it and put soap powder in, ready for when the electric came back on and she could get some washing done. She wondered where Renée was! It was almost 7 in the evening by this time. She had left school at 5:30 having had to stay behind for some extra tutoring that the school hoped would help her skip yet another grade. She was advanced for the year she was in, in all her subjects, except science, (and Gym in which she was a walking disaster area) so they were 'helping' her by giving her extra lessons twice a week.

This meant though, that on Tuesdays and Thursdays she couldn't make it to the small shop nearest her home before they closed, Renée had very strange ideas about food, brought on by an ex boyfriend several years ago (the boyfriend only lasted three weeks, the food ideas a lot longer)… never wanting to eat anything that was more than a few days old (Bella didn't have the heart back then to explain to her erratic and harebrained mother, just how long most of the food had been sat on the store shelves or in warehouses waiting to be distributed) so she tended to placate her and shop fresh every day that she could.

She contemplated getting changed into her night clothes, but the cold air of the house persuaded her that she would probably be warmer as she was. She did slip on a pair of thick leggings though, and took off her skirt. Dragging the quilt downstairs she made a small nest near the kitchen table, the heat from the ring wasn't much, but was better than nothing. She checked the water, it would be a couple of minutes before it was boiling and she could add the noodles. She went into the dark hallway and scooped up the unopened mail that her mother had hidden in the drawer in the table, and the couple that had arrived that morning after she had left for school, and made her way back to her nest.

She sorted through the pile… junk mail she threw in the small bin at her side, if nothing else they would help start a fire in the living room later. She was left with bills, Gas, Electric, Water, Phone, they were all known and expected, a mail order catalogue, a bill from a credit card, a receipt for leatherworking lessons?!

Her stomach rumbled as she was opening that last. When would her mother learn that the basics of life should come first? Over $250 on leatherworking! The unpaid electric bill was only $225! She got to her feet, too numb to be angry now. She slipped a small handful of noodles into the boiling water and opened a can of tomatoes, she tipped them into a bowl and was about to put them into the microwave when she realized once more there was no electric. Sighing she took a small pan and lit another gas ring and put them on to heat.

She picked up the credit card bill. Renée had promised her father faithfully never to get another card after the trouble they had the last time. She read the statement, her mother had not only booked leatherworking lessons, but one on basket weaving too! The total bill was for over $450, the interest rate, 29% if it was not paid in full. On the small wage her mother brought in Bella knew they just could not afford it!

She scooped out the noodles and tipped the tomatoes onto the top, wishing she had something with a little more taste to eat. She ate quickly and for once left the plate in the sink, too tired to bother having to heat up water for the washing up.

She made her way into the living room and made a small fire, she curled up in the quilt, she would have got on the sofa but the candle on the hearth and the fire only gave sufficient light for her to read if she sat close, she opened the Jane Austen collection and started to read where she had left off _'Mr. Bennet's property consisted almost entirely in an estate of two thousand a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, was entailed, in default of heirs male, on a distant relation; and their mother's fortune, though ample for her situation in life, could but ill supply the deficiency of his.'_

The front door opened and shut and Renée could be heard trying the light switch. "Bella!" she shouted "The bulb has gone in the hallway! And I spilt ketchup on my blouse, can you get it clean for tomorrow?" she sighed and got to her feet.

Her mother came into the room, she was in her mid 20's and had medium brown hair that reached her shoulders, her fair freckled skin and dark brown eyes weren't visible in the poor light of the room. She reached for the light switch on the wall before realizing what had happened. "Oh shit! They were quick off the mark this time, I hoped they would wait another week." Still saying nothing Bella held up the bill, the demand, the final demand and the notice of cessation of service. Her mother scowled and dropped onto the sofa. "Damn!" she said, then when another thought intruded she perked up. "You should see my new shoes though! Oh they are so pretty." Bella scowled at her mother, who sneered back, "Don't worry I have found a way to make some extra money anyway!" she brightened up as she exclaimed, "You will never guess!" again without saying a word Bella held up the credit card receipt.

"Oh!" Renée scowled again, "You'll see, this will work though. You never have any faith in me, you should be more supportive, I'm trying to make life better for us!"

"Like all the other schemes?" she at last spoke, not really believing that she was actually answering her mother back. "Tupperware, cost us $400 and you never made a cent, Avon, we walked the streets for 9 hours and you made a total of $14, home knitting, you ruined the wool they provided and had to pay the company $30 compensation," the list went on but she had had enough. She picked up the quilt, the book and the candle and went to bed, leaving her mother alone in the dark.

However her voice called up the stairs after her, "Don't you walk away from me young lady! Do I have enough clothes washed and ironed for work?" Bella didn't answer.


	2. Chapter 2

2

The next morning dawned overcast and muggy for once, Bella loved the heat of Phoenix in the summer, but the normally clear skies were a disadvantage in winter as the cold hit fiercely, at least this day would be slightly warmer… she hoped, though she also hoped that it wouldn't be one of the few days that it rained, her coat wasn't any more waterproof than it was cold proof.

Still, her breath steamed out of her as she quickly got out of bed, wrapping herself in her blankets as she looked at the small hand basin in the corner of her room, her mother didn't like Bella sharing the bathroom with her if she could help it, she often accused Bella of messing with her things. So unless it was necessary Bella used the small hand basin in her room and the downstairs toilet. She shuddered, the room was so cold ice had formed from the faucet where it had been dripping all night long. She couldn't get washed in water that cold, she would make herself ill, so she got dressed for school.

Clean clothes wouldn't be a worry for almost a full week, she had plenty of clean underwear and unless she had a problem or accident, she could wear her uniform for three days or so, she felt relieved that this year she had a change of uniform, the previous year Renée had insisted that one would do!

She slipped downstairs to the kitchen to heat a pan of water so she could wash her hands and face, cursing the fact that the hot water was electric rather than gas.

Looking in the fridge, quickly so as not to waste the cold air keeping the few items inside fresh, she grabbed out a block of cheese and the last 2 slices of a wholemeal loaf and made her lunch up. She regularly got picked on at school for not eating in the cafeteria, but money was too tight to waste on fries at $1 a portion. There were many, many disadvantages to being one of the very few poor students at a school in such a rich neighbourhood.

Getting a stool to stand on she looked into the jar in the cupboard for the shopping money… $4. She sighed once more, Renée must have taken the $20 note she knew had been in there, she put the money in her pocket. It was payday on Monday, but $4 wasn't going to last that long… added to which as soon as she got home she had to try to sort out the electric.

She grabbed her bag and hitched it over her shoulder, almost unbalancing herself at the same time because of the weight. There was no sign of Renée anywhere in the house, so she let herself out and locked the door.

Even with the overcast skies the cold was biting! She pulled her rather thin coat around herself, hoping that it would get warmer somehow, and cursed the fact that the school uniform meant she had to wear a skirt. As soon as she stepped out onto the pavement she felt uneasy, as if someone were watching her. Several times on her way to school she looked around, but she never managed to see anyone looking at her. By the time she got to school she was perished. She slipped into the girls changing rooms and huddled on the bench at the back of the room. The huge hot water pipes that carried heat to the school's radiators ran under the bench. The PE teacher never said anything about Bella using the room before school. It took so long for her body to warm through that the bell had gone for the start of class.

Mr. Blain, the mathematics teacher hated her, three times he called on her to answer questions on the board, and not just answer, he made her get up and write. Her blushes always made the other children laugh, which made her feel even worse. By the end of her first lesson that morning she felt like crying, but the stubbornness that was the main inheritance from her father kicked in and she bit her lip and widened her eyes, determined she would not give either the children or Mr. Blain the satisfaction.

Second period was science. She groaned. It wasn't that she didn't like science, she did! She especially liked old Mrs. Vaughn the rather absent minded teacher. She had known her all her life, as they lived close to the teacher and her ailing elderly mother, it was just that with the extra lessons twice a week, it was getting boring. However when she got to class there was something unexpected. Instead of Mrs. Vaughn there was someone new.

The man was tall and blond, his face was as pale as his hair and he wore a very nice light coloured suit. Bella had never seen anyone as handsome as this man, and looking at the faces of the other girls in her class neither had they. He reminded her of the pictures that Renée had brought home one time from one of the many churches she had attended for a short while. All he needed was a halo and he would be the spitting image of a saint or even an angel. He hardly looked old enough to be a teacher to her.

"Wow!" Julie Cook said as she whispered to Jessica Smith on the next row, "He's gorgeous!" Bella was looking at the teacher as she heard them speak and noticed him smile slightly as if he had heard. That was impossible though, they were sat only 2 rows from the back and Julie whispered.

"Good morning class!" The teacher said, turning his back to them and picking up some chalk, "I am Mr. Carlisle." He wrote the name on the board in the neatest handwriting that Bella had ever seen and underlined it. "Mrs. Vaughn and her mother have taken a holiday, and I have come in to help you all get ready for your exams!" Bella frowned, when all the other pupils groaned, teachers didn't just take off in the middle of term, it wasn't allowed.

Though she wouldn't say that she was especially close to Mrs. Vaughn and her mother Mrs. Middleton (who was 90 at least, Bella was sure) they were friends. At the end of the lesson the night before, Mrs. Vaughn walked most of the way home with her, as usual, and she had said that she would see her "tomorrow" as they parted, surely if she was planning on going away she would not have said that… she would have told her that she was going away!

Bella looked at the new teacher with suspicion. Something wasn't right. On her way home she was going to go see Mrs. Vaughn and make sure everything was ok.

"Please open your books to page 223," the teacher said. Bella opened her book and frowned, she had already covered this in her extra classes. "Isabella Swan." Her head shot up and her cheeks blushed automatically as her full first name was called. The teacher was looking right at her. "Please bring your exercise book to me," she picked up her book and walked to the front of the class. David Barnes stuck out his foot and caused her to trip, she sprawled onto the floor, her book flying under the teachers desk. Her face burnt with humiliation as she tried to get up, but he had put the legs of his chair on the edge of her skirt and she couldn't move without risking ripping the material and she couldn't afford another skirt this year. Stupid school uniform! Her hands and knees stung from being in contact with the hard surface of the floor.

The sound of her tormentor laughing was suddenly cut short as the weight lifted and freed her clothes. "Principles office." The teacher said, his voice tight and angry.

Bella nodded and quickly picked up her book and headed out the classroom. "Not you Miss Swan, Mr. Barnes is the one who is being put on report." Bella looked at the teacher quickly… didn't he know who David Barnes' father was? Vice Principle Barnes was the real ruler of the school, and his son got away with murder because of it, he took especial joy in tormenting the few "poor" students, and her especially as she was a year younger than the others in the class and David seemed to think this made him look bad… things had gotten worse of late as it seemed like she was going to skip another year and so he constantly tripped her, knocked into her, or made her drop her things, just to embarrass her.

"You can't send me to the office," David said, sitting back in his chair with a cocky grin. Mr. Carlisle grabbed him by the back of his sweater and lifted him straight in the air, over the desk and out of the classroom, David was a bulky child for his age but Mr. Carlisle lifted him as though he weighed no more than a feather.

"I will be contacting Mrs. Bullock in 3 minutes, if you have not arrived at the principal's office by that time you will be on more than a report!" the teacher said his voice very angry now, the classroom behind him was deathly quiet so that everyone could hear everything. Bella stood by the teacher's desk, not knowing if she could get away with returning to her place, but deciding not to even try, she was still bright red in the face, but inside she was jumping in joy that the bully had at last met someone who wouldn't stand for his lip, and at the same time dreading the retaliation she knew he would take on her for being the cause of his humiliation.

"You'll be sorry you spoke to me like that! My dad will make sure you never work again!" Mr. Carlisle stepped back out of the classroom as David's threats followed him in. Suddenly he gave a yelp and the class could hear him running down the corridor. Bella wondered what the teacher had said or done that had shut him up.

Mr. Carlisle returned to the classroom and after a quick glance around that made every student eager to read their books, he held out his hand to Bella and took her work.

He looked through it carefully but quickly and smiled at her over the top when he finished.

"I see you have covered the work that Mrs. Vaughn has scheduled for the next two weeks already, Bella," Bella stifled her sigh, she hated doing things over and over, "so I guess I'll just have to find something new for you," he opened his briefcase and pulled out a bright orange book, "have a look at this, I got it in England last year, and was wondering if it would go down well here, let me know what you think!" Bella looked at the book, and then at the teacher, confused. He nudged it closer to the edge of the desk and she automatically grabbed it before it overbalanced. Still puzzled at what he was meaning, Bella nodded and returned to her seat.

The book, entitled "Physics for You!" was quite heavy, but as soon as she opened it she knew she could spend hours and hours reading it. It was a light-hearted tome, with poems, cartoons and mnemonics galore to help pupils remember the syllabus, and though it was for a higher age group than her own, she understood an awful lot of it, just because of the way it was explained. As an avid reader, and good student, she was almost angry when the lesson ended and she had to hand the book back.

"Keep it for now Bella," Mr. Carlisle told her, smiling, "I just knew you would love it when I heard that you were being tutored to skip a grade. You can give me it back when you finish with it, or at one of the after school lessons, feel free to ask me anything you need, to understand it." Bella nodded and carefully put the large book into her already crammed bag.

It wasn't until she was in the corridor heading to her French class that she realized what the new teacher had said. It sounded as though he was going to be at the school for a while, which reminded her of her puzzlement over Mrs. Vaughn.

She went into her French class more determined than ever to go see the science teacher after school, something just wasn't right.


	3. Chapter 3

**3**

Carlisle watched as she stumbled through the door. Her bag was almost as heavy as she was and he saw her knock into the door frame as she went, shrugging the bag higher onto her shoulder. He frowned at the memory of her scuffed shoes and too large sweater. It was obvious that money was extremely tight for the girl. He took out his cell phone and dialled his daughter.

"I saw EVERYTHING! She is so CUTE!" Alice's voice pierced through the small speaker, if he wasn't a vampire, he figured that it was totally possible that that last word could have only been heard by dogs.

"Will it work, do you think?" he still wasn't certain about the course they were on.

"Of course it will!" Alice said, upset that he was questioning her. "It isn't often I am wrong." Her voice was subdued as she said this and Carlisle silently shook his head, knowing she had probably seen him do it even though she was 3 miles away. Alice blamed herself for Edward, and until things were back the way she thought they should be she would continue to blame herself. "You know I can't usually see more than a few days ahead, this is why this is so important."

Carlisle looked into the corridor as if he could pierce the walls and find Bella, she was younger than he had thought when Alice had started this. She was just under 8 ½ years old. There was no way that Alice's plan could be completed before the girl was 17 at the earliest. Though 9 years meant little to an immortal of his age, his wife fretted every day over their 'eldest son's' absence. There was little to be done though, humans grew at a set rate. He ran a hand over his face and into his hair, a sad smile on his face as he recognized the gesture as one he had picked up from said son.

"It will work Carlisle," she assured him again, "but not if we don't help… if things continue the way they are Bella will end up in foster care soon, bad things will happen to her and she will never get to meet Edward! If we interfere too much she will never go live with her father, we HAVE to get the balance right!" He nodded again at the empty classroom and said a quick farewell, he could hear his next class in the corridor, he got to his feet and let them in.

Bella struggled to lift the brown paper bag with the food in, while balancing the schoolbag at the same time. It wasn't really very heavy, just bulky. She had 87c left in her pocket, there was just no way she could make the food last until her mother was paid. The bank was empty, and she still had to find the money for the electric company! The final demand for the gas bill was due in the next two weeks and the phone the week after. She headed on a slight tangent across the car park, heading for Mrs. Vaughn's house, worries pressed down on her and filled her head so much that she was surprised when someone spoke her name. She wasn't usually so out of it that she didn't know what was happening around her.

"Mr. Carlisle!" The person who had spoken to her was the new substitute teacher. He reached out and lifted the bag of groceries from her arms.

"Let me help with that!" he said, giving her no chance to refuse. She looked at him puzzled as he set off in the direction of her house. He reached over and took her school bag too, slinging it easily over his shoulder.

"Erm…" she was about to object to his actions…after all she didn't know the man! She stopped and bit her lip, trying to work out what she could say if he asked why a girl her age was shopping, but he never asked, however she jumped when a loud shout echoed around the street.

"DAD!" a girl not much bigger than she was, though obviously older by some way, ran across the street and jumped into Mr. Carlisle's arm. He balanced both the girl and bags skilfully.

"Alice! I'd like you to meet one of my pupils!" he smiled widely as he turned and introduced Bella.

"I'm so happy to meet you!" the girl was almost bubbling with excitement. She must have been 17 or 18 but she was only about 4 1/2 feet tall, she had dark hair that was short and spiky all over, in fact the only thing father and daughter had in common was their very unusual eye colour. Both had gold coloured eyes. Bella had a strange feeling looking at the pair. Though it was obvious from their interaction that they were close, she just could not truly believe that they were father and daughter. There was no way a man of his age could have a child that old! He didn't even look as old as her mother. She shook her head to herself and watched the pair closely.

"Hi," Bella said at last. The girl, Alice, bounced around her, as if she had so much energy she couldn't contain it. Mr. Carlisle was watching her fondly as she scampered about.

The girl was as beautiful as her 'father' and to tell the truth a little overwhelming to the reserved Bella. She spoke almost none stop until Bella realized she was at the top of her street. She thanked her teacher and took back the bags. After a quick good-bye she left the pair and made her way home. She entered the house, automatically flipping the light switch and sighing as it still did not work. The fridge would be no use in another day, the freezer, which she had made sure not to open as soon as she realized the problem would keep things cold a few days longer, not that there was much in there apart from a casserole and a small lasagne she had made for herself and frozen last month and a lot of empty boxes just to fill the space and make it cheaper to run.

She packed the few groceries away and picked up the phone. She dialled the direct number she had been given after the last few times, and spoke to the lady she had dealt with before on her private extension. Though sympathetic she couldn't help. The power would stay off until a token payment was made. Bella agreed to see if she could get her mother to forward something and put the phone down. Where they would get money TO forward she had no idea.

She waited until 7 before making her own dinner once more. It was obvious that Renée had a new boyfriend, she was late again. She entertained herself reading the physics book and chuckling to herself often at the jokes and rhymes that made remembering things fun. It wasn't until she went to bed at 9 (with still no sign of her mother) that she realized that she hadn't visited Mrs. Vaughn.

She would do it after school the next day.

"There's no electric?" Esme was dismayed as Alice told her the conditions that her future daughter was living under.

"Renée forgets to pay the bills, she is so wrapped up in herself, her schemes and projects that the normal every day things just do not get seen to. Bella is the one who does the things necessary to keep the house running." Alice sighed, trying idea after idea to get money to Bella that would not involve her mother so she could pay the bills and do some shopping. Each scheme she thought up was useless as Renée invariably got hold of the money and wasted it. She growled and pointed. The Cullen's watched horrified, they had got an apartment in a block overlooking the small house Bella lived in, and through the uncovered window of the house they could see the supposed parent eat almost all the food that Bella had bought home and then throw what was left of the good loaf of bread out for the wildlife while her daughter slept oblivious in her bed. Alice knew she would have to do something, otherwise Bella would be without food as well as electric the next day.

"Does Bella's father pay child support or alimony?" Esme asked, her voice tight with unnatural anger. Esme was the calmest soul Alice had ever known, it was rare for her to get angry. Alice looked forward and nodded her head, sighing in frustration as she saw the money deposited by Charlie being withdrawn before the bills were settled to buy materials for the leatherworking scheme that was doomed to failure.

"We could buy her goods, no… we could give her a winning lottery ticket…" Alice shuddered at the outcome if Renée ever got her hands on that much money, "We could employ Renée as a tutor… no we haven't got any children young enough, she isn't qualified to teach high school… we could try dropping a wallet full of money in Bella's path, but she just hands it in to the police."

"How does he pay?" Esme asked. Alice frowned, why was Esme stuck on this money, Alice had already seen what would happen to it?

"He pays it direct into her bank." Alice supplied. Esme looked smug and suddenly the vision arrived. It would work!

The next day was almost a repeat of the last. Maths class was slightly better but still a trial but science was a joy. Mr. Carlisle kept his eye on David Barnes and that young man was sulking mightily, having been given detention by his own father which signalled to the other teachers that his antics were not to be tolerated any more.

(A quiet word from the supply teacher with words like harassment, witness, lawyer and court had given the vice principle a new view on what should be seen as acceptable behaviour from his son. Another word with Mr. Blain, a man who had once caught an STD from Renée, had ensured that the child was not punished for her mother's mistakes in the future either.)

Bella skipped through the chapter in the book on radioactivity as she just could not grasp the material, she decided to ask Mr. Carlisle to explain some of it at the extra class after school.

Lunch time she sat at the far side of the school on a bench at the back of the boiler house, alone as usual. She vainly tried to cover up the scuffmarks on the toes of her shoes with her pen. It didn't work so she turned to her lunch, it wasn't much of a lunch, she had to make do with the last of the cheese and no bread. The loaf she had bought on her way home the day before had been broken up and scattered on the back yard for the birds by her mother. She could have cried, but was by now used to being last on the list of priorities, so she didn't bother. She had been sad for so long now it was normal and she didn't even realize that she seldom smiled any more.

Suddenly someone bounced onto the bench at the side of her making her jump. It was Alice!

"Hi Bella!" she said.

"Hello… What are you doing here? You are too old to come to this school aren't you?" she asked puzzled, wondering how the girl had found her and how she was going to eat her lunch without her noticing how little she had to eat.

"Oh, we only just moved into the area and my mother is home schooling me for now, but she had to go and sign us up for doctors and dentists and things," Alice spoke rapidly and waved her arms about as she spoke, Bella liked her. She was not usually one to make friends easily, friends tended to want to visit your home and do things together, and Bella just didn't have the time, and she didn't want anyone to know just how much of the day she spent without 'adult' supervision, so she kept to herself. Alice was so friendly though, and with her being so much older she wouldn't want to hang around with someone her age anyway!

Alice reached into a rather scrunched up brown paper bag, "Here, I've had enough, want some?" Alice was holding out half of a thick sandwich, the bread struggling to hold the large amount of salad and cheese inside.

"I've had my lunch," Bella told her friend, hiding the paper bag with the lump of cheese in her school bag.

"What a waste!" Alice made to put the food into the bag she had scrunched up, she held it out once more, and Bella's mouth started watering just thinking of the crunchy salad. "Are you sure? I'm only going to throw it away, my mother always makes more than I can possibly eat."

Bella caved, the lure of fresh, plentiful, tasty food that she didn't have to make herself winning over her natural reluctance to accept charity. Besides it was almost criminal to waste good food!

Alice spoke almost none stop to Bella all through lunch on a variety of topics. She never once acted as if it was a chore to be with someone so much younger than herself. After Bella finished the sandwich, Alice shared a small pack of California raisins with her new friend, though Bella could swear that Alice didn't actually eat any of them.

As the bell went for afternoon registration Mr. Carlisle came out and Alice went to join him. Bella felt happier than she had in quite some time. Even though Alice was double her age she felt comfortable with her and knew she had found a friend she would like to keep.

During Bella's extra lesson Alice sat at the back of the classroom quietly, and when the lesson was over the Carlisle's walked Bella home again. This time she didn't stop for groceries, there just wasn't enough money left for that. She was lucky Alice had shared her lunch with her so she wasn't too hungry.

Renée wasn't home when Bella arrived, though she was not expecting her to be. She picked up the mail from inside the front door, dreading the possibility that there may be even more bills lurking in the pile. However one of the letters stood out, it was hand addressed and if she wasn't mistaken it was her father's writing.

She tore open the envelope quickly and pulled out the very thick letter, it was only when she dropped a couple of bills that she realized that it wasn't a thick letter after all, it was a single sheet and cash! Dollars! She counted them rapidly, $400! The covering letter was addressed to her mother, of course, and it stated that there was a problem with Charlie's bank account, something had happened and the bank was unable to send this month's money through so he was sending it cash! Bella frowned, she was sure she had seen her father's money go into the bank last month, and if it did not go in next there would be major problems with the bank. She shrugged, the end of the letter said that if by some chance the money arrived in the bank she (Renée) was to use the $400 to buy Bella something nice. Electricity would be nice! So would food! Bella tucked the money into the pocket of her school bag and quickly burnt the letter in the fire. Renée must not find out about this! A moment of guilt swept through her, it was technically theft, but she was tired of trying to make Renée see reason. If Charlie's money didn't go into the bank then she would sort that out when the time came.

How was she to pay the bill? It was easy to get shopping, they took cash, but the electric company wanted a bank transfer or card details, and Bella just daren't pay the money into her mother's account. First thing that morning the mail had arrived and the bank had sent a letter stating that Renée had overdrawn on her account without permission. If Bella paid the money from Charlie into the bank it would be swallowed up with what her mother owed as well as the overdraft fees.

How typical. She had the money for the bills at last, but no way of paying them! She racked her brain but the only thing she could think of was calling her father and asking him to pay. That would lead to even more arguments between her parents, and she caused enough as it was. Renée had several times hinted rather broadly that SHE was the reason her parents were no longer together, Bella could well believe it because her father had changed nothing in the house at all since the day Renée had walked out, as if he still hoped she would return.

Bella nervously checked the cash was safe in her bag as she left the house early, for school. She was walking past the store, just about to turn to Mrs. Vaughn's house, when Mr. Carlisle and Alice came out of the shop, Alice bounced over to her as Bella watched her teacher head to the cash machine and put his card into the slot.

An idea formed at the back of her mind, could she trust him though? Really the teachers were the biggest danger to her home life, they were the ones who may possibly work it out and call child services.

But… Electric.

"Hi!" Alice smiled hugely.

"Hello Alice." Bella smiled back slightly distracted, she chewed her bottom lip as she warred within herself, her need for independence battling with her need for electric.

"I was going to call for you on the way to school, mother is having to see to some more things today so I'm coming in again." Bella's eyes widened in panic. NO! Alice couldn't come around without electric in the house. What would she say? "Bella?" Alice looked at her concerned, her mother always said her face was an open book and she couldn't hide anything.

"Can I trust your dad?" Bella asked quietly. At least Mr. Carlisle was only a supply teacher, there was less chance of him reporting her than her full time teachers, wasn't there?

"Of course!" Alice said, her voice sounding hurt at the thought someone wouldn't trust her father.

At that second the man in question finished his business at the ATM and joined the two girls.

Before she knew it, Bella had spilled the situation at home to him. Not everything, not the fact that she hardly ever saw her mother, or that she was often without food, but enough so that before she knew what was happening he was on the phone to the electric company and reading out his card details.

Bella pressed the cash into his hand after he finished. She wasn't used to being able to rely on other people, it felt nice having someone who acted on her behalf. She burst into tears in relief.

Alice looked at her father in consternation but he pulled a hanky from his pocket and she dried her tears, laughing at how silly she was, crying because things were ok again! Mr. Carlisle put a friendly hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently, his hands were frozen! She could feel the cold even through her rather lightweight coat, and school sweater. However when he asked if she was OK she nodded and decided not to say anything.

"Come on girls, we will be late for school," he said steering them on the right path, "And though Bella would get a late mark and Alice nothing at all… I don't think it looks good when the TEACHER is late." He smiled and Bella and Alice laughed.


	4. Chapter 4

4

She walked in the house and quickly ran back to the utility room. She set the washing machine going and then ran around the house getting the dirty clothes together, Renée just dropped clothes wherever she took them off, it was Bella's job to make sure she found them all and got them clean. She knew that she had three months before the electricity company would get to the stage of cutting her off again, but couldn't help wanting to get everything done as quickly as possible just in case it went off.

After the washing machine finished she shoved the clothes she knew Renée wanted to wear in the dryer and folded the sheets as best she could and slipped them over the line installed in the room. The warmth of the dryer would help dry them, though the bill was paid she never used the dryer any more than she had to, it just ate money!

She put up the ironing board and got a cotton tea towel and rinsed it under the tap. The steam iron was too heavy for her to use properly, she had burnt her fingers a lot trying, so she used the small travel iron and a damp cloth instead when she ironed her school blouses, and her mothers work clothes, it was a lot more time consuming but she didn't burn herself half so much.

To begin with Renée didn't insist that Bella wash and iron her clothes, but she had realized ages ago that it was a lot easier for her to do it than to cope with her hysterical parent on the mornings she realized she had nothing to wear for work. So she had just taken over the task and had done it so well, so consistently that now Renée not only expected it, she punished Bella when it wasn't done.

By the time she was ready for bed she had caught up entirely on not only the clothes that had built up when the electric was off, but some ironing that she had neglected from before. The sheets were almost dry when she checked and would be totally dry in the morning. She made herself noodles for supper and tiredly slipped into bed.

There was no sign of her mother.

Knowing that all the grand plans Renée had made for the fortune she was going to get from her leatherworking and basket weaving were going to come to nothing, as she would get tired of the projects long before seeing any profit (or even the end of the courses) Alice worried about what would happen next.

It was difficult for her as Renée just decided on things out of the blue. There was no trail that led to these stupid ideas, she just thought them up on the spot, so there was no way of working in advance to stop her. Until decisions were made, most of the future wasn't clearly visible. It was so annoying!

Alice had been watching Bella even before she was born in a way. A vision had come to her almost a decade ago showing her the one person who could complete their family. She hadn't realized at first that the future she saw was not just the near future as usual, but more like her first vision of Jasper, long term. It had taken her four years to even find out Bella's name and where she lived. Things had taken a worrying turn in the last year though, events that had seemed set in stone were suddenly in flux. The hunter was still on target, it was Bella herself who was in danger of changing the ideal future. Closer observation had shown an increasingly bitter Renée as she felt her youth slip from her. Bella's danger though was not just from her mother's neglect and frequent bad tempers, but from a lack of self esteem and growing depression making her unable to connect to anyone, somehow the Cullen family, or at least Alice herself, had to make friends with the girl for almost 10 years without her noticing anything wrong. This crucial point was where she and Jasper together had come up with the plan they were now working on.

It was looking like it could be a full time job for the Cullens until the meeting of Bella and Edward at last happened, sometime around when she was either 17 or 20… Alice couldn't say for sure which one was most likely at any one time. The future wavered and settled as things progressed, a major decision had to be made for the earlier meeting, which was the preferable one as it meant not only Edward coming home earlier, but their road to happiness was much smoother if they did meet at that earlier time. The only thing that was unchanging and certain, now, was the fact that they WOULD meet, unfortunately this leading to Edward being reunited with his family depended on some very careful decisions, ones Alice would have to recognize and step in to ensure success. The fact that these steps weren't yet known did not change the future as it was certain that Alice WOULD act to protect that future that she wished for no matter what was needed.

They only had a few more days at the school, and Alice needed to be close enough to Bella by the time the sun shone again and stopped Carlisle working at the school, that they could keep in touch, even as pen pals it made future intervention so much easier. If they could be closer than that things would move even smoother.

However it was less than 2 days after, while Carlisle was still being science teacher at the school when the next crisis arose, and this was one where she had every sympathy with Edward's previous rebellious period.

Alice was sorting through Jasper's closet, picking out all the clothes that he had worn at least once to be given away when a vision suddenly appeared. Her cry was heard by everyone in the place and they all reached her in seconds.

Alice ignored them all as she sorted through pathways, trying to find the best way to prevent what she had seen… Bella, dead! She was laid in what looked to be a shallow grave while a man Alice didn't recognize was filling loose dirt on top of her. She was in her school uniform, partially.

Jasper tried to calm her as she sifted the futures until she found one that not only protected Bella but several other young girls.

The triggering factor… Renée. She had not only started dating a man 'seriously' (or as seriously as she ever did), she had just decided to bring him home. That would lead to him seeing Bella. However this man was different from the usual users and flakes she had hooked up with before, the visions Alice was subjected to would have made her vomit if she had been able to.

She looked at her husband and realized that she could not ask this of him, it was time for Emmett to join in! He had been wanting to help since they had been told the plan, Rosalie had flatly refused to do anything to help, stating that Edward had come back last time, and he would again when he got over his "sulk", but Emmett was, as usual, fascinated by anything human, his sense of humour was strange… to say the least… but his loyalty and compassion were second to none.

As soon as Alice revealed what the new man in Renée's life was after, and what he was capable of doing in the future, Jasper and Emmett made plans on how to "dissuade" him from his lifestyle.

"It won't work." Alice said sighing as the future swirled as their plans developed, she put her hand onto her husband's arm before he could object. "It needs to be something more… permanent."

"You mean we should kill him?" Jasper asked, shocked that his wife could suggest such a thing.

"If you don't then I can foresee at least 4, maybe 5 girls being tortured and killed by him, and that's just in the next few years, God knows how many he has already killed!"

"But…" Jasper was the one who struggled most on the diet of animal blood, Alice knew what she was asking by advocating the death of the paedophile, which was why she knew she could not ask him to do it. She turned to her brother.

"I'll do it." Emmett said, his voice and face grave for once in his life. Esme put a consoling hand upon his arm, but he didn't need it, the proud look he received from his wife was enough for him. Rosalie nodded her permission when he looked to her, though she had insisted that she wanted nothing to do with the plans to help Bella, her past made her vicious when it came to sex offenders, no matter what age the victim. "When is the best time, Alice?"

"It has to be tonight… Renée will leave him just before midnight and he will head over to another woman he has been seeing, her daughter is 9." She didn't need to spell out to them what he was going to do, one look at her face told them that if they procrastinated then they would be too late for one little girl.

"Where will he be?" Emmett asked, Alice gave him the route that would lead from the bar to the girl's address and by the time he and Rose (who refused to stay behind) left Alice could no longer see any future for the man, by 4am Rose would have given him every reason to regret ever being born and Emmett would make sure that the pieces of him that could be identified would be in the stomachs of carnivores 2 States apart.

Alice slumped, she had never had to work so hard just to keep someone alive! Truthfully she had never tried to keep anyone alive as such, but she could not imagine that everyone was as prone to danger as Bella seemed to be, after all if they were, no one would ever end up growing up!

She searched futures frantically, still she could not bring back into focus the exact vision that had set her and the family on this course in the first place. What if, by changing things, she had stopped that future from ever happening? Ok the changes she had made as to the money and the paedophile were necessary, but somewhere along the line she had changed something else, something that now meant in a few years time Bella did not go to Forks, did not meet Edward and did not help Alice right the wrong that she had caused that day back in 1950. The later meeting was now the one that was certain.

Something that needed to happen had not happened, and it had not happened because of what they were doing. In fact the nebulous swirling of the future now showed Bella, aged in her 20's STILL at home looking after her mother, she had met Edward, the bond had formed, but Renée had demanded that Bella not leave her, she had even threatened suicide until Bella agreed to stay. The Bella in this future was obviously suffering, but her mother was too uncaring about her to even notice.

What had she done wrong? WHAT? She went over every move they had made trying to find out what it was but she came up blank every time. It was enough to make her scream. Even Jasper couldn't help as he tried to send calming waves to her. She was determined though, she would sit there until such time as she worked it out! Even if it took until Bella was 17 and Alice had to kidnap her to get her to Forks!

The sun slanting into the room through the window woke Bella up, she stretched and yawned… she loved sunny days, the heat felt marvellous on her skin as she basked in the early morning rays coming through the gap in the curtains. She glanced over at her clock, 07:45. She groaned, it was Saturday! Why couldn't she ever have a decent sleep in? The warmth of the direct sunlight through the window tempted her to snuggle back into the bedding, but she knew she should really get up.

There were things that needed doing.

Mr. Carlisle had said that he wouldn't be at the school any more, Mrs. Vaughn and her mother were back from their holiday and she would be taking back over again. Bella wasn't as happy about that as she thought she should be. She had really enjoyed science with Mr. Carlisle, as well as enjoying Alice's company. However it was nice to know Mrs. Vaughn was ok, it had worried Bella that she had never managed to go around to see the missing teacher, every time she tried something seemed to get in the way. Of course, she could always go around after lunch.

If she managed to get the rest of the housework up to date, and managed the bulky dry goods shopping… she pulled her backpack onto the bed and slipped her hand into the pocket in front, $68 left. Plenty for her needs.

Luckily her mother's wage would be in the bank after the weekend. Though with the unauthorized overdraft a large chunk of it would be swallowed up. At least the electric was sorted. Bella had a list of bills and their priorities, first (though not Bella's priority she knew she could not stop it) Renée insisted that she take $200 a month for herself. Though what she spent it on Bella had no real idea. After that, there was the rent, then the gas, and phone, Bella had already cancelled the cable service, public channels would have to do her mother if she was ever in to watch them. If she did the bare minimum of shopping that left $15 out of the wage which she could use to pay the minimum on the new credit cards. She had already taken the card and she had cut it into pieces. When Renée had shouted at her that it wasn't up to her to say what her mother could or could not do, Bella offered to stop paying the bills, or even to go shopping. Renée had slammed out of the house and hadn't been seen at all for 2 days.

When Charlie's money arrived they would be ok for the rest of the month. Always assuming that there wasn't something wrong with the bank and it DID arrive as it was supposed to. What she would do if it did not, she didn't even want to think about.

She slipped on her only pair of jeans and a sweatshirt that she had picked up at a charity shop for 50 cents and made her way downstairs. As she turned into the kitchen she jumped in surprise to see her mother there. She sighed at the sight of her, the short shorts and tight, low-cut top would have fit her if she had been 2 sizes smaller, and may have looked good if she was 10 years younger, her make-up was smeared and she smelled of cigarette smoke. It was obvious that she had been up all night, and by the tissues on the table, Bella guessed that she had been dumped by her latest boyfriend. She sighed, all she needed after the week she had had was to have to console her mother after another relationship disaster.

She filled the kettle and lit the gas ring. She poured the milk into the cups and tried not to watch her mother, who was sniffing very dramatically, as she went about making tea for them both.

She slid the mug towards her mother as she reached for the out-of-date coco pops that she had got for half price in her shopping. Her attempt to ignore her mother didn't work, Renée let out a sob and started crying again… "I don't know what happened!" Bella continued getting her breakfast, "We were so good together… he just… seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth!"

"Hmm," Bella said around a mouthful of cardboard tasting cereal.

"We were supposed to meet at the bar near my school, but he never arrived, they said no one had seen him since Wednesday!" Bella didn't mention the fact that her mother had been out both Thursday and Friday evenings… and if not with her new man, with whom? "I even went around to his shop, it was closed, but there's no sign in the window to say why."

"Hmm," Bella said, hoping she sounded a little interested, but not enough for her mother to go into detail.

"The mail is on the floor, and a couple of daily papers, I tried calling the police but they said unless there was some sigh of foul play, or a relative called, there was nothing they could do."

"Oh, dear," Bella sympathized, unsympathetically.

"I mean, I told them he would never go away on his own… he has classes to take!"

"Thought he owned a shop," Bella said, then realized her mistake. She really shouldn't have shown she was listening.

"He does own a shop, he does leather goods, oh Bella, you should see the things he has in the shop!"

"Is this the man you paid for lessons?" Bella asked, knowing she was right… trust her mother to not only start a new flaky idea, but get conned out of the tuition for it! She had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, her mother would now go look for someone else to teach her, and pay out again. If the idiot had just taught a couple of lessons Renée would have got fed up when she saw how much effort was required and would have given up to start something else. But now he had run off with the money she would be more determined than ever that this was the ONE way to make money that would work. Bella felt like hitting her head on the kitchen table.

"I have to go out," she said, quickly rinsing the bowl and spoon out and grabbing her coat from the hallway.

"Where to?" her mother said, still sipping the tea, "I thought you could help me look for him…"

"Mom, I don't have time!" Bella protested, a small amount of the ire she felt leaking into her tone. "I have to do the shopping, and then the house needs cleaning, and there's dinner to cook… and I have to visit Mrs. Vaughn and her mother…"

"You don't have to visit anyone!" Renée said, "You try to do too much, and you shouldn't use that cream cleaner, it's doing terrible things to your skin, use an organic cleaner instead." Bella noticed she didn't tell her not to cook, clean or shop, and how did she expect her to be able to afford organic anything on the money she had? Did they actually DO organic cleaners? Would they work?

"I really have to go… you know the freshest food is in early," Bella said as she slid out the door.

"Have a good day!" her mother called sarcastically, and Bella knew she was safe, something had distracted her and she had forgotten her protest at Bella's schedule.

Bella walked to the store with lighter steps, pulling the small wagon behind her that she used for heavier shopping days. She loved her mother, she really did. But sometimes she really didn't like her too much. She wondered where she thought she had the money to shop from, or even why the electric had magically turned itself back on. But then realized that her mother wouldn't think twice about it. The shopping fairies must have come and given her some cash, for all Renée knew or cared.

She filled the wagon with the things she needed most, cleaning items, and so forth due to Renée's strange view on food storage, and not too much in the way of groceries. There was no point in stocking up anyway, as nice as that sounded, as Renée would do stupid things, like try and cook and end up making inedible food for herself and then throwing it away, or feed the wildlife as she had earlier in the week. Bella sighed, dejected as she made her way to the school teacher's house. She knew if she headed home first she would never get around to visiting, her mother would make sure that she spent all her time with her… not through motherly love, or even just for company, no Renée hadn't had her pound of flesh in sympathy yet, and though Bella was in no mood to baby sit her mother and bolster her ego, she knew as soon as she walked in the house, that was all she would get to do.

Bella put the brake on the wagon as she stepped up to the door, she knocked tentatively, what was she doing? What was she to say? _'I noticed you weren't in class and you didn't tell me you were going away so I worried?' _This wasn't her mother, this was a grown woman! Before she could turn and retreat though, Mrs. Vaughn opened the door, a huge smile on her face.

"Bella!" she said, swinging the door open to allow her to walk in, "How nice to see you my dear, I hope everything is ok?"

"I…yes…I," Bella stuttered, Mrs. Middleton shouted from the front room where her bed was.

"Who is it?"

"It's Bella Swan, mother!" Mrs. Vaughn shouted back and gave Bella a smile again. "I think she came to see why I wasn't at school! Come on in my dear, I was just making mother a cup of tea, would you like one?"

"Erm… I wasn't going to stay, I was just…"

"Worried, I know," she patted Bella on the arm and sort of pushed her in the direction of the front room. Bella had no choice but to go in and see Mrs. Middleton. The old lady was laid in what should have been the living room, and was now her bedroom. A small TV in the corner of the room played to itself, some sort of sci-fi programme, as far as Bella could see. She sat on the small sofa that was wedged behind the door, the only other piece of furniture in the room beside the single bed the old lady lay in.

"Worried she was playing hooky?" The old lady asked, wheezing with laughter at her own joke. Bella smiled politely. "Well, it's a strange thing," the old lady continued as the sounds of a tea tray being put together in the kitchen rattled through to the room. "We were just sat here, talking about where we could afford to go on holiday come spring break when we got a phone call, seems someone had put us in a sort of award thing… or something… anyway, we won a holiday! But we had to take it straight away… Our Linda said we couldn't, as she was a teacher, and the people said it was too bad, but couldn't she just ask her headmaster… so she did and he said it was fine. She's never had a day off work in 17 years! He even said that he wouldn't officially put her down as having time off, as she had been so loyal and all."

Bella was sure the old lady had a lot of the facts wrong. Headmasters, in her experience, just weren't that nice. When she had had her tonsils the year before out Renée had told her that they wouldn't even let her have the afternoon off to pick her up from the hospital. She had had to stay until almost 8pm waiting for her mother to come get her, as they wouldn't let her discharge herself.

Mrs. Vaughn walked carefully into the room and placed the tray by her mother's bed.

"Would you like a scone?" she asked, putting one and a brownie onto a side plate, she placed them on the arm of the sofa Bella was sitting on. Bella nervously shifted in the seat, she couldn't remember the last time she ate cake, she usually couldn't afford it.

"Eat up girl!" Mrs. Middleton said smiling at her, "I've never seen a child so skinny in my life!"

"Mother!" Mrs. Vaughn smiled sympathetically at her, Bella put the plate on her knee and bit into the chocolate cake, "nice?" the lady asked. Bella smiled and nodded, it was delicious!

"We just got back from Florida, my nephew entered me into a competition for carers for the elderly, a respite sort of holiday, and we won! I was amazed, we have never won anything in our lives, have we mother?" she looked at the older lady to see her nod, then shake her head, seemingly confused as to which response was right. "It was ever so lovely, they sent a posh ambulance to get us and we had a special plane to fly us there. Then we had 4 days of being waited on hand and foot, they had specially trained nurses to help mother get around and even had a sauna and a Jacuzzi…"

"I didn't like that!" Mrs. Middleton muttered under her breath, causing both her audience to laugh.

"And Phil came to visit us, he was so pleased that he thought to enter us when he had seen the advert in the locker room, we haven't seen him in ages, have we mother?" the old lady shook her head firmly this time. "It makes me think that we may move out there when I retire, it was so clean and bright!"

Bella doubted it got much brighter in Florida than it did in Phoenix, but she didn't bother to correct the ladies, all her worries had been for naught. There was nothing suspect about Mr. Carlisle's sudden appearance, it just seemed strange because it was all so quick.

"He promised to visit next year, when the baseball season finishes," Mrs. Vaughn told her, "He's a lovely boy, always thinking of us, even though he can't afford to visit much he never fails to call." Bella smiled and finished her cakes.

"I have to get home soon, Mom will be wondering where I am."

"I'm sure she will," Mrs. Vaughn said, an edge to her voice that made Bella uneasy. Maybe it was the wrong thing to do, be friendly with teachers? But if she never spoke to an adult she would hardly ever speak. She had no friends at school, due in part to her obvious poverty compared to everyone else, but mostly her shying away from close association so her home life stayed private. "Here my dear," Mrs. Vaughn put a couple of scones into a paper bag, "take these and have them with your tea, I made miles too many." Bella was about to refuse but something in the teacher's eye stopped her. She thanked the two old ladies and made her way outside. "Come again next week, mother loves to see you." The teacher invited.

Bella made a rather non-committal nod as she put the bag with scones into the top of the brown bag with her shopping in and released the brake. As she turned out of their garden she looked back and caught a sad look on Mrs. Vaughn's face that changed quickly into a smile and a wave.

She worried about it all the way home, but once there she was happy to note her mother was no longer at home. Bella put away the shopping, hung the washing out onto a line strung across the back garden and put the last load on to wash.

She gathered together the ingredients for a casserole and placed them into the dish and put it onto a low heat, she could turn it up when Renée came back in and it would be ready in an hour.

She looked around the house. It was obvious Renée had left just after she had. The mug was still sat on the table where she had left it. "It wouldn't hurt you to rinse a mug out," Bella mumbled under her breath as she picked the pot up. She immediately felt guilty, though she did not know why. She got the cleaning bucket and made her way to her mother's bathroom(the ban on her using it didn't apply to cleaning). She hadn't scrubbed it for a week, and her mother liked it spotless, so she set to!

Alice squealed with glee! Somehow things were back on track. All of a sudden the future popped back into her vision. She had no idea what had changed but something had! Things were back on target!


	5. Chapter 5

5

_Hey Alice!_

_I'm using the new school computers to email you! I miss you, where did you move to? I thought you were going to stay in the area for some time. _

_How is Mr. Carlisle? And your mom? I don't have a lot to tell you, this is just a quick note to let you know my school email address, everyone in the school has one! Isn't it great? We can stay over any time we want to and use them, as long as there is a teacher around. Mrs. Vaughn has shown me how to start everything, we have just finished my science…oh! Your dad left his book behind. If you send me your new address I can post you it next month._

_Miss you,_

_Bella_

Alice looked out of the apartment window, she could easily see the back of Bella's house from where she was sat, though a human would need binoculars to see that far clearly. The Cullens had had to stay inside almost all day for a full 9 days. Emmett was already driving her crazy. There was no help for it though.

They had already had to intervene again in the child's life. After that particularly horrifying vision the week before Jasper had arranged with Jenks in Washington to bring in some 'associates' that would do as they were told, no questions asked, for as long as they were needed. Luckily Jenks was so afraid of Jasper, and transmitted that fear to the others, that the Cullen's didn't need to worry about the 'help' being unreliable. The money the Cullen's were paying them was enough that a couple of them could probably even retire at the end of their 'protection detail'.

One of them had risked, if not his life, his health already. Following instructions second by second he had walked almost directly in front of a car and caused it to swerve and hit a wall. No one was seriously hurt. Their man had a huge bruise on his leg and the driver had been wearing a seat belt.

The reason for it was that Bella had decided to take a slightly different route home and Alice had seen that ifthere had been no intervention then Bella would have been crippled (probably for life) less than 200 yards down the road, when the driver leant over to change the music tape and hit her as she made her way home from school.

The girl was SERIOUSLY accident prone! In fact accident prone probably wasn't a severe enough description!

_Dear Bella,_

Alice tapped her nails on the table in frustration, gouging small half moon craters into the surface without thinking.

She had never interacted with a child as young as Bella, and with no recollection of her human years she couldn't even remember when SHE was that age and what girls usually thought about. Of course she doubted that she was like Bella as a child. Bella was too self-contained, Alice was very extroverted and it was unlikely that she had been much different as a human.

She thought of all the things she had heard the girls talking about at the school. Alice knew that even though it wasn't high school some topics would always be close to the heart of girls. She scanned the future as she planned what to write.

Fashion? No, Bella was not interested in clothes, not that she could afford any of the names Alice thought were essential to a wardrobe anyway. Any email even mentioning such things would stop Bella writing. She would believe that they had nothing at all in common and just give up.

Boys? Too young.

She silently wished Edward was there, he could read her mind and give them some clues… she scoffed to herself. If he was there she wouldn't have to do this, she could just introduce them and allow nature to take its course, Edward would be the one to watch over her until she was old enough to change. But she couldn't deny that she needed help, if she was to continue to be in contact with her soon-to-be sister she had to be INTERESTING!

The girl seemed to do nothing that was expected of her! She didn't watch constant streams of brain numbing TV, she didn't visit friends, or gossip about other school children, she didn't even shop! Not even window shopping! All she did was READ!

Of course! She slipped from her room and knocked on Carlisle's office door.

"Come in Alice." Her 'father' said.

"I have to engage Bella! She just emailed me and I have no idea what to say for once." she wandered over to the bookcase nearest the door as Carlisle chuckled at her comment. She stood looking at the shelf that held the usual classics. She picked up Homer's Iliad, shook her head and put it back, running her fingers over the spines she automatically remembered every word of each book as she momentarily touched it. Chaucer. Too complicated for her as yet. Milton. She doubted that Bella had read Paradise Lost yet either. Shakespeare. That had potential! But the language? Though advanced Bella was only 8! Brontë? Too depressing! That meant Dickens was out too. Austen! Pride and Prejudice! Emma! The very thing!

"Any more visions of trouble?" Carlisle asked.

"Not as yet, though she did fall down today and badly scraped her knees, there was nothing that could be done. It doesn't help that she faints at the sight of blood, and hit her head on the way down!" She sighed exasperated. It was more and more clear how she injured herself so often now.

Carlisle gave a worried look, going into 'Doctor mode' "She hit her head? Does she do it often?"

"More often than I would like, but I don't see any major damage from it… or at least not yet. If we can stop the major accidents, I don't think the minor ones will hurt her too badly." they smiled at each other. "Thanks for the inspiration, the computers came through, if you hadn't guessed." Her smile turned smug as she was once again proved right.

"It isn't as if we need the money," he laughed, "and if it helps later on then it will be a good investment!"

"Right, got to go, I have mail to answer."

He picked up the current copy of the Lancet and started to read again as she quietly closed the door behind her.

_I am so glad you can keep in touch! Dad told me about the computers, he learnt that the school was waiting for them when he was there, that's why I gave you my email address, it's a lot better than using a phone, as you don't miss the calls this way and any time we have spare we can keep in touch, it also is cheaper than phoning long distance. Dad found some great sites online for me for my schoolwork, Mom is still 'home' schooling me because at the moment we are in England! Yes England! Mom had a conference to go to for work, and then she wanted to visit some cousins to work out something to do with the family… or something. Anyway, as Dad didn't have a full time place, and they hadn't put us into school yet, we all came with her!_

_The weather here is a lot colder than it was in Phoenix!_

She quickly went to the BBC pages and looked up the weather in Derbyshire, England.

_There is still a lot of snow on the mountains (or peaks as they call them here), but down where we are it isn't so bad. I have recently been to a place called Chatsworth house, the house is open to the public and it is super! The grounds are very pretty too, there is a 'waterfall' that is like a staircase down a hillside! I think this is the place that they filmed the Pride and Prejudice series that was on TV a few years ago, I don't know if you saw it? It was very good! I have just had to read the book again as we can now go and look at the places mentioned in it, have you read it? I do like Jane Austen books, they are easy to read but so interesting, I have a version that gives explanations for things that we wouldn't understand, which makes it better._

_My Dad says when the family business that brought us here is finished we are going to London, and should be able to stay a month or so, I will mail you whenever I can, please keep me updated with things in Phoenix._

_Bye for now_

_Alice_

She couldn't think of anything else to say so signed off, looking over the email she thought she had hit the right note, it DID sound like something a teen would write. She paused, just to be certain, before sending, looking to the future to make sure that it would be received well and that Bella would be happy with it. A vision of the young girl reaching into her school bag that was under the computer desk and pulling out a tattered but well loved copy of P&P. Smiling, she at last pressed the send. Tomorrow, or the day after, (depending on whether she decided to leave school and shop the next afternoon) when Bella got the message she would be overjoyed that her new friend had more in common with her than she had suspected.

The great friendship Alice had seen in her visions for years was firming up to certainty.

**August 2001**

_Alice,_

_Hi! I'm back from Forks! It will take me a week to dry, I swear. It's not too bad being with my dad, his friend Billy has three children that I get to stay with a lot. The girls are a little older and Jacob a little younger but it feels strange to actually have other kids around to talk to._

_What are you doing? I missed our emails, a full month without being able to contact you, dad says he may get me a computer for next year so we can keep in touch, but I told him not to bother as I'm there so little! But I'm back now. School starts again soon and in a way I am looking forward to it, even though I told you before that I wasn't._

_A new school! I wonder if I will like it? It is going to feel strange being the youngest by more than a year in the whole school, but Mr. Barnes, who just took over as head teacher, assures me that I will be able to do the work. I admit I was dreading having to redo the last two years just because I had already done them, but now I'm wondering if it would have been better just to stay and be bored rather than move now._

_On a positive note there's no uniform at this school so I don't have to wear a skirt EVER!_

_Renée is her usual self, I came back to find not a single thing had been washed when I was away, so I spent the last 3 days washing clothes and tidying the house. _

_She also told me I had put on weight while with Charlie and that she can't afford me another set of clothes, so I have to diet because I am getting fat. I don't think I look any fatter than most of the girls at school, I wish I had a camera I could send you a picture and you could give me some advice._

_In the end I just had to come to the library for a break, and was very pleased to find the computers available as soon as I walked in. I usually have to wait for an hour or so before I can get on!_

_I don't expect there will be much to tell you before school starts again, so I'll wait for your email and probably write back in two weeks to let you know how it went._

_Love _

_Bella_

The Cullen's had visited their house in Forks while Bella had been there in the hope that they could look after her just as much as they had before, or even more, as well as hunt properly. However the family was shocked to realize that Charlie's friend was Billy BLACK, hereditary chieftain of the local Native American tribe and grandson of Ephraim Black, the man who had made a treaty with the Cullen's in 1939, before Jasper and Alice had joined them, keeping the family away from their territory.

Though the family could move around in daytime better in Forks, they could not follow Bella when she went onto tribal lands, which was almost every single day of the month that Bella was visiting.

Charlie was by no means an overprotective father, but he WAS a good one and made sure that she was always well supervized. Even so, three times during the month she ended up in the local hospital with various bumps and cuts, it was never too serious, and it DID reinforce the fact that she really was just accident prone and not being abused at home.

Charlie had just been promoted to Chief of Police of the small town, killing any real chance that Bella would end up living full time in Washington any time before her late teens.


	6. Chapter 6

6

**September 2001**

Alice had fumed over the last email and Renée's treatment of her daughter for the full two weeks before she got another mail.

_Hi Alice,_

_Well, I was right. It is a __**good**__ thing that I moved school. The teachers are all wonderful here and the subjects are interesting. _

_You will never believe what she did! Yesterday morning I had been in school for about an hour when Renée called the office to say I had forgotten a dental appointment and had to leave. When I got home she told me she couldn't find her red blouse! I was so angry. After I found it I found out why it was so urgent._

_Renée was kind enough to tell me that she was going off for the week with her new boyfriend. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that she seems to have forgotten the date, as her school was badly damaged by a gas leak during the holidays and she has not started back yet._

_She had the nerve to say that she had thought it was still August when she agreed to go and that she thought that I was going to be at Charlie's while she was away. I only got back 2 weeks ago. She takes such an interest in me she never noticed I was gone for a full month (except when she needed something doing, I guess). Anyway in the end I told her to just go and that I could manage, not that it took a lot to convince her, it never does. _

_Oh and her latest idea? I have to call her Renée and not Mom as she really doesn't think she is old enough to be seen as my mother! I'm guessing she's told her latest boyfriend that she is younger than she is, well it's not like I want to talk to any of them anyway, so I wouldn't think her age would come up in conversation at any time._

_At least with her going away I will be able to get my homework done, without having to break off to cook when she comes in._

_Got to go, email you after school tomorrow!_

_Bella._

_Hi Alice,_

_I've looked over my last few emails and it seems I complain about my mother a lot (notice I didn't call her Renée? I do it just to annoy her now!). I don't mean to whinge, it's just that I have had a lot to do lately and it got to me, please just ignore what I said. Sometimes she just gets on my nerves and I have to vent._

_I had a great night last night, I baked a batch of muffins and ate the lot! I didn't even feel ill after! I hope I don't put on any more weight though, Renée will go mad if I do. Do you have any tips on how to lose weight quick?_

_I haven't heard from you for a couple of weeks, are you travelling again?_

_Love Bella._

It wasn't a surprise that Esme had to be held back from visiting Renée to have a small chat after these emails, however what shocked everyone but Alice was that it was Rose that was most vocal in their family after reading them. She had regretted not being able to have children of her own ever since she woke from the change and to see such a sweet child being neglected and made to feel unworthy like this made her extremely angry, but not yet angry enough that she agreed to the whole of Alice's plan.

However as she was one of the couple in Phoenix at that time it fell to her, one night when Emmett was hunting, to rescue Bella. Alice had called in a panic, two men who had records of burglary with violence had targeted the house, knowing Renée wasn't home.

Rose almost flew out of the window, dropping the 7 stories to the floor as lightly as a feather, she sprinted to the house they had been watching for so long just as the men were reaching into their bag for a bar to pry the door open. She entered through the rear door, knowing Renée often didn't bother to lock it (which was the main reason the Cullen's had chosen the apartment they had, as it overlooked the back door), a slight scrape of metal on wood sounded and she flicked on the hallway light.

The men paused, she listened to their heavy breathing, but they were not moving! As they had a history of violence against people who disturbed them as they 'worked' something more was needed to deter them. Alice sent Rose a text, and she silently opened the living room window and pretended to call 911, telling the 'operator' in a voice just loud enough that someone was trying to break in. The retreating footsteps sounded quickly and she refused to move until they were no longer audible even to her superior hearing.

As she was in the house anyway she checked on their charge. Bella slept on undisturbed by the horror that could have encountered her that night. Her face looked sad even in sleep, and Rose finally fell as much in love with the girl as the rest of the family.

"We WILL keep you safe!" she promised in a whisper Bella could not have heard had she been awake. She gently brushed a stray hair off the girl's forehead, anger for the woman who had neglected her child so much building in her.

What was Renée thinking? Allowing it to be known that she would not be in her house! The answer, of course, was that she was thinking of herself and her own enjoyment. Her latest boyfriend was actually a drinking buddy of the 2 would-be burglars. When, after too many drinks, she had let it be known that she was spending time with her new beau, the 2 men had immediately tried to take advantage of that, Renée had gone home with her man oblivious and uncaring of the danger she had put her daughter in.

Even worse, from Rose's point of view, Alice told everyone that it would be Bella's birthday in a couple of days and it seemed to look like her mother had forgotten all about it! The Cullen's couldn't do much about it though. It was still too early for them to intervene in Bella's life directly.

The year before, Alice had seen, Bella had realized that other girls her age had birthday parties and had asked if she would be having one. Renée had laughed at her, saying that they could not afford such an extravagance, and anyway she had no friends to invite so it would be a waste of money, she had then promptly spent $200 on a pair of designer jeans that were 2 sizes too small for her to even wear… they still sat in the back of the closet, unworn.

As Bella had told them in her mail, Renée had told her that she was going to Florida for the week with her new boyfriend. However the surveillance team of Jenks' men told the family that she was in an apartment less than ten miles from home. Though Bella assumed her mother had forgotten her birthday, it was reported that Renée had been overheard saying that she didn't see why she should spend her hard earned cash on… "that good for nothing, lazy, child." They also reported that she was telling people that she had adopted Bella when she was younger, out of the goodness of her heart, insisting she wasn't old enough to have a child of her age!

_Alice!_

_I received a package this morning! You really shouldn't have. I don't remember telling you it was my birthday but thanks! I love the books, mine were getting a little worn. Charlie gave me some clothes for my birthday while I was in Forks, (Renée said they are unfashionable and make me look like a boy, but I don't care!) however I think the sales lady must have picked them out. I don't think I have ever worn so much purple and blue, but then at least he did think of me!_

_Still no word from Renée, I knew she would forget. _

_Got to go, I just needed to say thanks._

_Love you_

_Bella!_

After consulting with Jasper on strategy Rosalie smugly earned her self-proclaimed title of queen bitch by the end of the week as a slight revenge on Bella's behalf.

She had walked into the man's local bar dressed in a designer outfit that didn't cover much more than the bare essentials and had immediately caught his attention. She made sure to keep that attention all night. Renée had drunk heavily and fumed to herself while her 'date' had done nothing but talk to the younger-looking beautiful woman.

The icing on the cake was when at the end of the evening, the man had ended up kicking Renée out of his apartment so he could invite Rose around.

Of course, Rose didn't go, she was much too busy lurking in the shadows enjoying the look on the other woman's face when she was told to pack her bag and go home.

Renée had screamed and shouted at the top of her lungs at the man until someone called the police to remove the public nuisance, the man who cared so much for her then proceeded to dump most of the things she had bought with her for the 'holiday' into the street for her to find when she was released from custody the next morning after a night in the drunk tank!

However, this revenge almost backfired, as, when Renée got home early the next morning she was in such a temper that she took it out on her daughter. Things almost took a physical turn when Bella refused to show any sympathy for her mother. Luckily Mrs. Vaughn arrived extra early. She had planned to walk with Bella to her new school to see what it was like. The tantrum Renée was just winding up to throw was aborted and she had to swallow her ire, rather than risk the suspicious old lady getting anything concrete to complain about.

However, Renée did get a small revenge. She sold the books.

Over the next few years Bella was saved from serious harm nineteen times by the Cullen family members or their agents, from death, five times, and from trauma, fourteen times.

Just crossing the road was a hazard of unbelievable proportions for this girl! Any time blood was involved the damage could increase exponentially as she would grow faint and drop to the floor like a brick. Several times the accidents were so close together or so severe that the social services were called. Overall more than a half dozen times healthcare professionals launched investigations after numerous visits to the ER when things that just could not be helped happened. Renée actually attended a few of them too. Things would have been very bad for the young girl if the Cullens and their agents had not actually stopped most of the serious accidents from happening.

However no matter how much they prevented, the repeated broken bones, bruises, strains… all added up, in some people's minds, to abuse. Though the Cullens (as well as some others) knew she was being neglected, she was not actually being physically abused.

The school nurse even had a sign "Bella Swan's bed" on the couch in her small office as a joke. CCTV footage had been produced by the school twice (both times Bella had ended up with a rather nasty concussion as she fell into things at the sight of blood) to prove that accidents were just that, and not incidents of bullying.

Renée had grown increasingly bitter over the years, what had started out as a self-centredness, had grown to full blown neglect. The odd nasty phrase she was used to throwing out had lately become frequent verbal abuse of her daughter. Renée was drinking more as she saw signs of aging in herself and resented Bella's youth and vitality, she had been downright malicious on occasion and Alice could only see it getting worse as the years progressed.

The future that Alice hazily foresaw was threatened several times when Renée met someone new, even though there was nothing at all wrong with some of the men, the ideal future would shimmer and disappear, so each time it happened it was just a case of breaking the relationship up for things to get on track, some of the 'jobs' were too sensitive to trust to the men hired to help the Cullen's so the family could not move away en masse from the area. Renée was growing increasingly desperate, she knew that eventually Bella would want to move away, and Renée didn't want to be left on her own. She made stupid decisions and threw herself at men, hoping that one of them would be someone she could rely on to look after her. As she grew more and more dependent on Bella, she resented her daughter more and more.

Each Cullen pair travelled north after their time looking out for her disgusted with the fact that they could not do anything to alleviate the problem.

Bella's attitude to her mother changed as time progressed. From exasperated but willing to cope, to quietly resentful.

Phoenix wasn't the ideal place for vampires to live among humans, apart from the sun it was altogether too close to Maria, and the problems of vampire armies had not been forgotten by anyone. However on the positive side, with the problem of sunshine and the Volturi keeping an eye on the area for any reoccurrence of trouble, the number of nomadic vampires the Cullen's encountered during their stay in the south was nil.

With the human men being hired to safeguard Bella, and the back-up of one pair of the family, the others were all able to move to more… suitable climates. Taking turns to 'baby sit' their charge, the majority of the Cullens lived mainly in Alaska during that time, the rotation of people helped blur people's minds about the un-aging family and the remoteness of their home deep in the Denali National Park meant they could hunt properly. Everyone was happier with this arrangement, especially when Alice assured everyone, frequently, that the ideal future was still on track.

**May 2005**

The May of the year after Bella turned 12 things took a serious turn for the better when Renée 'met' and started dating Phillip Dwyer.

The nephew of the science teacher at Bella's old elementary school, he had moved into the area after Mrs. Middleton's death. As the only living relative of Mrs. Vaughn he moved into the house with her and applied for a transfer to a local baseball team.

Though Bella was generous enough to be happy for her mother, her emails to Alice were strangely unsettled.

_Alice,_

_Hi once again._

_Sorry I haven't mailed you for over a month, but Renée has got a new boyfriend (again). I think I may have mentioned Phil to you, his aunt is Mrs. Vaughn, the teacher who was on holiday when your father took over and we met._

_Ever since I moved from the Elementary 3 years ago I have visited Mrs. Vaughn on a Saturday as I go home from shopping (I think I have mentioned how much I love her scones!)_

_It was on a Saturday, I was… as usual… doing the shopping, and had called at Mrs. Vaughn's house. As I was leaving to go home Phil came in from practise (did I mention he plays Baseball for the Angels, a local minor league team?) as he passed he tripped over the cart handle and landed on the corner, and the wheel fell off my cart. I have used it ever since I was 5 and so was rather upset that it had broken, my father bought me that! And apart from the fact that I am now well able to carry the shopping, it does leave me a hand free so I may read when I am walking home. Well he promised he could fix it, but he didn't have a bolt. I said I thought we had one at home and his aunt asked him to carry my shopping and help to fix it._

_He came home with me, I felt OK about this, I have seen him several times and he seems a nice man, and of course his aunt is great. For a change Renée was home when we arrived, and though she was not interested at all in the broken cart (or even the shopping) she WAS interested in Phil!_

_She invited him to dinner, and from there they have seen each other regularly._

_It is strange. First because even though Renée is her usual self, he is still here! Most don't last a week as you know but this one has staying power I guess. Second, though he is seeing my mother, he insists on giving me a lift to school every day that he can, he also picks me up if he is able afterwards. He takes Renée shopping (oh that was fun when she had to admit to him she had no idea what to buy as she hadn't done the shopping for years!) and third, isn't it strange that my mother's boyfriend is closer in age to me than her? I wonder what will happen when he finds out her REAL age!_

_His aunt comes around twice a week now and 'helps' me to do the washing and things. I don't like it Alice. Would I be ungrateful if I said I want things to keep on the way they were? I was happy being left alone. I did what needed to be done and no one bothered me, and now I suddenly seem to have adults looking over my shoulder all the time, telling me that I shouldn't be doing things that I have managed to do for years._

_Renée scowls at me whenever she thinks Phil isn't looking, as I 'make her look bad'. But is it my fault she cannot cook? That she has not shopped for groceries in six years? That she has… as far as I know… never ironed a blouse? Used a Hoover, a washing machine, a dryer?_

_Things in the house have become more and more uncomfortable. I wish it were summer! As much as I complained about the weather last year, I would walk all the way to Washington just to get out of here for a while! I know that usually when I am up in Forks with Charlie Renée spends every penny she has on take-out and such, I think this year she is in for a shock, or she is if she wants to keep Phil… _

Alice gritted her teeth so much that it sounded like gravel was being crushed in the living room. The last 2 years, while Bella had been in Washington with her father, Renée had actually helped herself to the 'college fund' that Charlie had been paying into and had gone to a 'health spa' for the duration. There was little-to-no fund left. The only reason that the Cullens had allowed it, was because they knew that by the time Bella was ready for college, she would be one of them and they could pay for her. Alice's visions had shown that if Renée had been denied the 'little holiday' she would have taken it out on Bella and the little tolerance the woman felt for her offspring would be totally obliterated. This would be bad for Bella and once more foster homes loomed in the visions.

…_I have to say I am not really enjoying school very much since coming to high school. It was bad enough starting 2 years earlier than everyone else, but this last semester it has got bad. The girls who are popular are always making nasty remarks about my clothes, though they are clean and were new at the start of the year! They seem to have got nastier as the year goes on, I am sure a couple of times that I have actually fallen over someone's foot when it was deliberately stuck out for me to trip rather than falling over fresh air as I usually do._

_Jessica Taylor is the worst, she is 17 and captain of the cheerleader squad and always whispering when I walk past, she doesn't even pretend that she isn't talking about me anymore, she stops whatever she was saying and just stares until I leave. I hate her!_

_Renée doesn't help either, when Phil insisted that I tell them what was wrong, she waited until he had left for practise and then told me it wasn't a surprise that they didn't like me as I didn't look after myself, always wearing baggy clothes and jeans… it isn't fair, SHE is the one who insists I get clothes too large so they last me longer and I don't grow out of them as quick! She often says it's a pity I take after Charlie and not her, she used to always be in the popular set at school, but my looks are against me, no one wants an ugly friend._

Alice paused and frowned. This wasn't like Bella at all. She usually just sat and took whatever life threw at her. She thought of forwarding Carlisle the email and the vision of the result popped into her head. Of course! Bella was hitting puberty. Her self-esteem was at an all time low and the bitches at school weren't helping her with it, never mind her mother!

_Don't you think it's strange, Alice? You are my best friend, my only real friend and you are quite a way older than I am, _(Alice smiled sadly to herself, if only Bella knew how much older!) _we only actually met 4 times! Isn't it weird? Maybe that's why you are still my friend, you don't have to see me in real life. You probably have better things to do than to listen to me moan anyway, so… change of subject._

_Did you decide to go to college after all? I know you were still undecided last month but really I would love the chance to leave home and do nothing but study all day! I can understand you wanting a year or so off, but this is your future, and it is so much better with a good education behind you _(trust Bella to give the supposed 20 year old education advice that sounded like a 40 year old was speaking, Alice sighed, wishing she could rescue Bella from the next four and a half years. But it was too soon. If Bella was established in Forks too early she would start seeing the blond idiot from the camping store, and that would NOT go down well with Edward once he found her. It could also lead to her being pressured into acts that she normally would be too sensible to do, there was no way they could carry out the full plan if she had a baby by the time the bond formed!).

_How is your family? Give your dad my regards, if he remembers me, though I doubt he will unless you have mentioned me over the years. He must see so many children, I doubt I made an impression._

_Oh… I forgot! How was Greece? You are sooo lucky! Imagine walking in the footsteps of the Greek Gods and Heroes! I got a book from the library after you wrote about it, about the mythology of the region. It was rather hard going in some places, and I bet I don't pronounce anything like I should, but it is fascinating!_

_What landmarks did you visit? I hope it was sunny for you. _

_Changing the subject again (sorry), do you think I would have any chance of getting Charlie to take me to California instead of me going to Forks? I know if he takes proper holidays I will only see him for two weeks instead of the month but I REALLY hate Forks. I have never seen the sun there! Ok that is an exaggeration but not by much. I just feel that if I am getting a break from housework and homework I should be able to laze in the sun!_

_I suppose I better go. Phil will be waiting outside for me to take me home. Is it wrong of me to dread going home? Even more than usual? I have taken ever single after school class (that does not include any sporting activity) that I can, just to avoid going home, if I'm not careful they will try and skip me another grade!_

_I still think it is strange to walk out of the door and see someone waiting for me. Phil really is a nice man, he isn't creepy in any way, but really! I have been walking home alone for YEARS! Why does he insist on going out of his way to pick me up? When I told him I could manage he gave me a strange, sad smile and said that he knew I could. I will NEVER understand adults! If he knows I can, why does he still sit outside for ages waiting for me? It has stopped me having time to come to the computer room or library and email you!:-(He could be getting home and getting on with something more important, but no, he sits there, up to an hour sometimes, just to take me home in the car._

_Of course Renée isn't pleased about it either. She told him he was supposed to be HER boyfriend. He accused her of being jealous. I almost wet myself laughing at that. As if she had any reason to be jealous of me! Though maybe when he finds out how old she REALLY is that will change, he doesn't know it but he really IS closer to my age than hers!_

_At least we haven't had the electric cut off since Phil came around. And he always makes sure her car is topped up when she is running low without me having to go fill a jerry can at the local gas station. (Thank god they never asked me for proof of age! I never realized all this time that they weren't supposed to let someone my age buy gas until Phil told me.)_

_Altogether life is different, and I'm honestly not sure I like it as yet. Maybe he will get tired of looking after me, it can't be easy for him, I'm not even his child._

_REALLY I have to go now!_

_Love you loads A._

_I'll write again soon!_

_B _

If Alice could have cried she would have. Usually Bella's emails were rather impersonal. Lists of books she had read, classes she had attended. Only a handful of times over the years had she ever cracked and written about more personal things. It was a sign of how much stress she was feeling that she opened up so much. And still, there was nothing that could be done for her, not yet.

Phil Dwyer was a good man, he would make sure that Renée looked after Bella better, or he himself would look after her if her mother wouldn't. Bella was right, he wasn't a creep. She may be a danger magnet and accident prone, but she WAS a good judge of character.

Alice fantasized getting her hands on Renée's neck, the roiling twisted future that fantasy produced made her ill and she stopped quickly.

She stood and closed the lid on the laptop and looked out of the sheet glass window. She and Jasper had been living in the apartment for four months now, they could see things changing in the small house in the near distance. No longer did Bella sweat over the garden at weekends, Phil took care of it. No longer did she get up at 6am to make sure her mother was dressed in nicely pressed clothes (several times in the past couple of months Alice had witnessed that woman knock over the pile of clothing that Bella had just ironed on a purpose while 'looking' for something and then insist her daughter do them again!)

The house was too far away for even them to hear what was being said, but all the Cullens were adept at lip reading now, having spent so many times watching from a distance. As Alice watched Phil pulled into the driveway and Bella got out, her stance was hunched as if she was expecting a blow, but when she couldn't see her mother anywhere she straightened up slightly. It was obvious from her body language that she wasn't comfortable with his show of parental concern. She shrugged her bag onto her shoulder, almost unbalancing herself with the weight… some things had NOT changed! … and she moved into the small kitchen.

Alice watched as Phil stood by his car, a frown on his face. Renée walked out of the house and Alice saw him clench his jaw in anger before he swallowed it back and smiled at her.

Alice concentrated on the world in front of her, rather than trying to force a vision. Bella quickly put together a lasagne from various tubs she had stored in the fridge, and put it in the oven. No matter how much Phil didn't like her doing the cooking, they could not afford take out every night and they definitely couldn't survive on the slop Renée produced.

Bella opened her mouth and Alice read her lips as she shouted that she had homework to do. She disappeared from sight and soon the curtains in the tiny back bedroom opened and Bella threw herself onto her bed.

She pulled a small paperback from her bag, which she had dropped as soon as she entered the room by the looks, and turned onto her back and started to read.

She was safe and sound and at home. Alice turned from the window to see a frown on her husband's face.

"What's wrong suga'?" he asked. Alice stepped into his open arms and shuddered as she thought of the email. "Bella?" she nodded.

"She's so alone! She was complaining that Phil takes care of her and she doesn't like it because she isn't used to it. It's wrong Jasper!"

"I know love." Jasper sighed. He had been close enough to read Bella several times. The girl was seriously depressed and didn't even know it. He had managed to lift her mood dramatically when she was on the 'plane the year before heading north, (at least one Cullen always caught the flight with her as Renée dropped her at departures and left her to find her way on her own, sometimes leaving her there at 2am when she came in from the nightclubs as she was 'too busy later to take her'!) but he knew that the girl needed someone to care for her properly. As a solider he understood tactics and the need for waiting until the right time for action, but the plight of the child was wearing on his whole family and his wife in particular and he was sorely tempted to rush in and solve the problem of her mother permanently.

However it was a waiting game. Bella would be happy for a very, very long time, as long as the Cullen's made sure everything kept on track.

It was just so damn hard!


	7. Chapter 7

7

**May 2007**

_Alice_

_Oh boy! I never thought I would say this, but I miss Phil! He had to go to camp last week for a month for spring training or something and Renée has been in a temper ever since he left._

_Nothing is right for her. I'm tired of being shouted at all the time! I know I don't manage to get everything done as quickly as I could, but I do have lots of homework! It wouldn't kill HER to put the washing on occasionally. Mrs. Vaughn was ill this week and I spent quite a lot of time at her house, but Renée wasn't happy about that either. Then she even had the nerve to tell Phil SHE had insisted that I go look after the old lady!_

_I don't mind looking after my old teacher, she is a wonderful person. I'm just worried that she is actually a lot sicker than she lets on. I'm sure that she hasn't been able to keep any food down for days, but she insists that she eats something while I am at school._

_I wish I could call her a doctor, but I know we cannot afford it, and she won't let me tell Phil in case he risks his job coming home to her._

_What should I do? Alice help! Tell me!_

Alice called Carlisle, who happened to be in Phoenix for their turn of babysitting, he waited until the sun had gone down for the evening and visited the teacher the second Bella left. He was saddened to realize that the old lady had rather advanced cancer of the bowel, and she had known about it for some time.

He was shocked to find out that the shrewd old lady knew who he was the second he arrived on her doorstep. Bella had told her how friendly he and his family were, back all those years ago and she had never forgotten her description of his rather unusual features.

The two of them had spoken frankly about Bella and what would happen to her once the old lady was gone. Carlisle promised her that the family was watching her, she smiled and nodded her head, not surprised at this news, it seemed that various times over the years she had suspected someone was watching out for her young friend. He explained why they had not intervened as yet (though he didn't mention visions of the future, just that they were trying to keep her out foster care) and by the time he left the protective old lady she was satisfied that her young friend would be fine.

She died three weeks later, just after Phil returned. Bella was devastated.

**September 2008**

_Alice!_

_I don't believe it! My mom and Phil are going to get married! She has had me filling out forms for the past 2 days so we can get me a passport (by we I mean me, she even made me pay for it myself!). She plans on a beach wedding in Mexico in November and had 'forgotten' that when she went on that cruise last year when Phil was training, that I didn't go! How can you forget not taking your daughter with you on holiday? I have a feeling she didn't forget, that she never intended me to go with them, but Phil put his foot down and ordered her to get me a passport._

_She says I can't be a bridesmaid (as if I want to be) because if she has a beach wedding in Mexico the trip will cost too much to get me a dress. Also my kind mother says I have to make sure I don't get in too many of the pictures, after all it's HER wedding!_

_I think (read: hope) that Phil is going to put his foot down about it and stop her when he sees the full extent of her scheme. The plans she has made are just so expensive I don't think they can afford them, the dress she has picked out is almost $900. Luckily I don't have to worry about money any more. When Phil is at home he is the one to sort out the money now. Let him have the headaches of telling Renée she can't have $200 a month to waste on new clothes and going out with her friends! (I bet she doesn't realize that when she marries Charlie will stop paying alimony!)_

_I'm dreading baseball season next year though! It was bad enough this year when Phil had to go on the road for 2 months and he told her she couldn't go with him because she had to stay and look after me. She didn't even tell him she had given her notice in at work ready for travelling all over with the team. In the end she told him that she was so ill when he left that the school sacked her. I'm actually surprised they never did sack her to be honest. _

_Oh! You will never believe this (or maybe you will!) The new geography teacher at my school used to work at Renée's school as a relief when her children were younger. I found out from her that all those times Renée wasn't to be reached when I had an accident, she had called in sick and wasn't even in school!_

_I almost laughed in the teachers face when she asked how Renée was, knowing how often she was 'seriously ill'._

_She forgot my birthday again by the way… I would say I'm shocked but I don't think she has remembered one since I was seven or eight. Phil bought me a second hand computer and printer but Renée says we cannot afford an internet connection, at least I can use it for school work though. Ahh well, only ten months and I can hopefully spend two weeks with my dad in California, I very much hope next year he will be able to actually get the time off, I was so disappointed this year when he had to cancel and have the holiday in Forks as usual… but at least we had some fun._

_Miss you loads A_

_B_

At last! Alice knew as soon as the email came in that the time was now. She contacted Rose and let her know that she and Emmett wouldn't have to stay in Phoenix much longer and started arrangements for the family to enrol at Forks High school.

**June 2009**

_Alice._

_I was right._

_I can't stand this much longer! Phil left with the team last week and she has been … I just don't have the words._

_She spent all day Monday telling me that I will never amount to much as I don't go out and socialize with people. When do I have time? Honestly!_

_Then, yesterday, she decided to sort out her wardrobe. She had loads of dresses and stuff in there that she has never worn! Some of the dresses cost over $100! Can you believe it? Who would pay $100 for a DRESS?_

_She told me to give her the shopping money Phil asked me to look after so she could have them all dry cleaned!_

_What am I supposed to do?_

_Added to which she has had the nerve to get me a job. Not that I mind working, I'm quite excited to be honest, but shouldn't I have some say in it?_

_The job is at the local burger place, I start tomorrow night, 60 hours a week to start with (the boss said he usually starts people at 20 hours but Renée persuaded him to give me all the shifts he can!) At this rate I will be able to afford to get a car and save for college. Maybe next year I will be able to attend! God I hope so._

_TTFN_

_B_

_Alice!_

_I know I only wrote yesterday but I just had to tell you. She has just informed me I have to pay her ½ my wage for living here! I wonder what Phil will say to that when he gets back! (AND, she tells me, I have to still do all the housework too!)_

_Sorry just had to have someone to vent to…_

Alice ground her teeth, it was something she only did when Renée was involved in her visions, but this time it was more. Bella, at a local Walmart, looking through jeans to find any damaged ones so she could ask for a discount. She had got her first pay packet and Renée had taken not only the half that she insisted on, but had gone looking in Bella's bedroom while the girl was at work and had taken an extra $40! Bella had to have new clothes for work, and that money was supposed to pay for them. Alice shuddered at the thought of having to wear $20 jeans. They fit terribly! She grabbed her laptop and began ordering Bella some decent clothes. Once she got to Forks she would never have to go around looking like she had robbed a street person for something to wear again!

Esme was now the only Cullen in Phoenix. Carlisle had taken a post at Forks hospital and the 'children' had started school. It was hard for the family, Carlisle especially, not having Esme around, but she was happy knowing that things were now at a point where she would soon have both her missing children home at last.

In September Alice told Bella that in a 'surprising' twist of fate that the family had relocated to Forks Washington. She asked her friend if next year, she would be up to actually visiting her father at home once more, rather than California which she had planned. And plans were finalized to let Bella into the Cullen secret.

**January 2010**

Bella got off the plane in Port Angeles, her worldly goods packed into 2 small ragged suitcases, that could have fallen apart at the slightest mistreatment, and one carry-on.

Her father was there to pick her up, in the cruiser. Bella groaned as soon as she saw him in uniform. He had a truck for God's sake! Why couldn't he have picked her up in that? However taking the truck meant unhitching the trailer with the boat on and he said he only just made it to the airport after his shift at work, without all that 'messing' about.

Charlie didn't see anything wrong with using the cruiser, it was permitted by the department, and Bella didn't want to start her new life with him by upsetting him. It wasn't that she was ashamed of his job, she was very proud of him. It was just that, every time she was riding in the police car, she felt people watching them, wondering if she was a villain or something. Having spent her whole life trying to avoid notice, a police cruiser wasn't exactly the most subtle vehicle to arrive in.

She was impatient to get to Forks at last, and Charlie was thrilled for her to be there again, though he wasn't exactly overflowing with words about the situation, she could feel the suppressed aura of joy and satisfaction that he had around him.

They got to the small town at 6pm and her father carried her bags up to her room for her and after a few brief words, left her alone to unpack. That was the good thing about Charlie, though he didn't treat her with the same indifference that her mother did, he didn't hover.

The first thing she did was boot up the creaking second-hand (or third or fourth hand, it was Windows 95!) computer he had put on the desk in the corner for her. She thanked her luck that he had run a cable from the computer all the way through the house to the phone socket so she could have the internet. As soon as the machine was fully loaded she opened the email programme and configured it to her account to see if any news from Alice had arrived.

Alice had asked her not to tell her father about them being friends until after she arrived. And though Bella was extremely curious as to why that was, she did as she was asked. After all this was her only friend for years, she knew everything about Bella and had never let her down.

There was an email waiting, Bella opened it up.

_Bella,_

_I can't wait to see you again after all this time! Your dad will be at work tomorrow so if it is ok with you I would love to come around, after he has gone, to see you. You will understand why tomorrow, I promise!_

_Love A_

Ok, that was strange. Why shouldn't she tell her father that she knew Alice and her family? Everyone in this town knew everyone else and it would be a miracle if he didn't know Mr. Carlisle and his family, even if they were relatively new to the area.

Bella pulled a box of floppy disks from her carry-on bag and loaded the contents onto the machine (thank god she hadn't put them on CD as she just then realized it didn't have a CD drive). She imported all her email history onto the HD and then spent some time going over all the posts the pair had exchanged over the course of eight years.

Over that time Alice had several times mentioned her brother and sister, and her boyfriend Jasper, who also lived with the family, as well as her mother and father. Bella felt as if she knew them already.

Emmett was the eldest, though she had no idea just how much older than Alice he was, and Alice said he was a huge mountain of a man. He went out with Rosalie, the next eldest. Bella wasn't sure exactly how the family worked, she hadn't ever had the nerve to ask. But she did know that all the children were adopted, and that they had been together for quite some time.

Something about Alice's posts suddenly struck Bella as strange. Her own posts had changed dramatically over the years, from the short, almost impersonal ones when they first started talking (with, at times atrocious spelling) to the rather verbose ones she had sent over the last couple of years. However Alice's posts still seemed to be written by a teenager, even though she must be 25 or 26 now.

25. Even now, at 17, 25 seemed… old. But the tone of the emails had not changed… ever.

Bella unpacked her bags at last. The heavier of the two was packed with the books Alice had bought her over the years and they easily filled the small bookshelf by the bed. The other bag, the smaller, lighter one had her clothes, she quickly sorted through the pathetic collection, stuffing the top drawer of the small chest of drawers and using a small fraction of the wardrobe space. Her clothing was not just pathetic in amount but was wholly inadequate for the region, she knew.

It was 8pm when she ran down the stairs to her father, who was now in jeans and an unfastened plaid shirt over a plain white T-shirt rather than his uniform.

"Hungry?" he asked. She sniffed, but of course there was no sign of food in the air.

"Yeah, I could eat," she said, her stomach reminding her that she had had nothing since a bowl of cereal that morning, which meant that she hadn't eaten in 13 hours.

Charlie picked up the phone and dialled a number off by heart. Bella had almost forgotten his dependence on the local diner and pizza shop.

Within half an hour they were tucking into a large deep pan pizza at the small kitchen table. The mismatched chairs and now slightly dingy paintwork were left-overs of her mother's presence in the house.

It was quite obvious that Charlie hadn't moved on from his marriage. Pictures on the walls of Bella in previous years showed the same wallpaper in the room as was still on the walls now.

If Renée had ever walked into the house she would probably find everything in the same place as she had left it almost 17 years ago. It was rather sad, if she was honest, but at the same time comforting. No matter what happened in Phoenix, Bella was always assured that one place in her life wouldn't change.

After she had washed the plates and left them to drain, she told her father good night and headed off to her room.

"Glad you're home Bells," he said as she started up the stairs. She nodded and smiled and quickly used the bathroom, there was only the one in the house so she had to use it, but she wasn't quite sure if Charlie had any rules about hot water or shelf space, he never had when she visited but living there was different. She decided to just carry on as if nothing changed from her summer visits and if he had rules she would soon learn them.

She undressed and threw her clothes onto the rocking chair that was a left over from the days that this room was her nursery and curled up in the single bed that had been in the room ever since she was 4. Maybe she could get a double bed soon? She had always fancied a double bed and this room was just about large enough. Her room in Phoenix had only just fitted a single bed in it, in reality it was a box room that Renée had insisted was actually a bedroom, the other proper bedroom that wasn't Renée's was full of her junk, the things she had bought on a whim, like the leatherworking stuff years ago, sitting in piles all over the room doing nothing but gather dust.

Bella woke early, the cold of the air penetrated the house. She shivered.

All of her expectations for Forks were being realized. The weather outside was overcast and dismal, a light spattering of rain hit the windows as the prevailing wind sent gusts and flurries around the side of the house. The window frames weren't sealed properly and the temperature in the room was closer to 30 degrees than 40.

She quickly used the bathroom, not worried about meeting her father as she could hear him moving around downstairs.

She dug into her clothes. Renée had promised Charlie that she would, for once, send Bella north with suitable clothing, but of course, she hadn't. Bella glared at the four pairs of shorts that she would probably never wear again except to bed, the tops she usually wore with them would now sit under her one and only thick shirt. A brushed cotton, plaid lumberjack shirt almost identical to the one Charlie wore the night before. Which wasn't that surprising as her father had bought her it 2 years previously on her visit to the town. It was a good job she hadn't grown much since then. Though he had bought it rather large knowing she would only get use from it one month a year.

She shrugged the shirt on over her top, pulled on one of her only 3 pairs of jeans (all well worn and 'comfortable') and made her way downstairs.

She wondered what the job prospects were like in the town. It used to be a logging town "The Logging Capital of the World" it was known as, but from what she could find out on the internet most of the jobs in the area nowadays were at the local prison, 30 or so miles north of the town, but she was looking for something a little more removed from danger, with her luck the prisoners would riot the first day and she would shoot herself in the foot trying to keep control!

However, if she wanted to be at all independent, she needed work, preferably enough so that, put to her meagre savings she could soon afford to buy and run a car, with enough extra to save for her to go to college in a year or so. She would miss her job in the burger bar, but the work was hard and only getting half the wage made her less than enthusiastic to go.

She reminded herself that she had to go to the local bank, and arrange for her money to be transferred. She had paid all her earnings into the bank when she caught Renée going through her bedroom after her first payday. At least now she could put the money into an instant access account, and maybe even get an ATM card. She shoved her money worries to the back of her mind as she made her way into the kitchen.

"Hey, Bells." Charlie looked up over the newspaper sports section as she wandered to the stove.

"Hey," she tried to avoid calling him by any name. Dad didn't sound right to her and she knew he didn't like her calling him Charlie to his face, unlike Renée who insisted on not being called mom as it made her feel 'old'.

"There's coffee in the pot, if you want it." He gestured with his half empty mug at the almost ancient looking kitchen appliance.

"Erm no thanks," she didn't drink coffee, she glanced around and sighed. "I'll just have some cereal," she opened the cupboard where she remembered he kept it, only to find the half eaten packet of Lucky Charms that she had left the last time she was there still sitting on the shelf.

"Oh, damn, right." Charlie said, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a $20 bill. "If you have some time today do you want to do a bit of shopping?" he looked embarrassed, which was more than her mother ever had. "I can drop you at the shops as I go to work, or you can walk later. Sorry Bella, I totally forgot to do any shopping, I got called out to an RTA yesterday when I meant to go, but I promise I'll get it done on Monday, when I have a half a day off, just get what you need for the weekend."

Bella smiled at him. At least he TRIED!

"It's Ok; I don't mind doing the shopping all the time. I used to do…" she stopped mid sentence knowing how much saying things like that in past years had caused arguments between her parents.

"I know, but you ain't in Phoenix now Bella, it's MY job to look after you not the other way around."

Bella gave a small grin as she asked, "Have you learnt how to cook yet?" she asked, he blushed a little. "Really, Dad, I don't mind. I love cooking too. Let me do this, it beats being bored." Charlie brightened as she said 'dad' and she knew she had won the argument. He reached into his wallet and pulled another 2 bills out and handed them to her.

"Is that enough?" he asked.

"I hope so!" she laughed, not remembering a time she had $60 to spend on just food.

"Oh, you'll need transport." He reminded her. She knew there wasn't a chance of her getting to drive his truck. He never unhooked the boat from it and he wouldn't trust ANYONE with his boat. "Billy Black, you remember him?" she nodded, "He was selling that old truck of his, you remember the one you kids all used to sit in the back of when we went to the beach?

She did remember the truck. It was loud and old, but it was solid, and had a great personality.

"I bought it for you, hope you don't mind, Jacob will probably deliver it this afternoon as soon as he knows I'm not around to catch him driving under age," Charlie grinned. Bella smiled widely, probably for the first time in a long time, she felt optimistic.

"Wow, Dad, that's GREAT!" she paused. "You do mean the huge red Chevy?" he nodded and her smile got even wider. "How much do I owe you?" she asked, hoping she could afford it.

"Nothing!" he seemed a little upset that she was offering to pay him back, she didn't understand for a second and then she worked it out just as he told her, "It's a present!"

"Wow!" that seemed to be all she could say, she wasn't sure how to react. Apart from the books Alice had sent every year, Bella didn't remember ever having been given a real present. (Phil had tried to buy her something once but Renée had made such a fuss over it that Bella had asked him not to bother.)

"Yeah well," he got up from the table, disturbing her thoughts and bringing her back to the present. He swilled his cup out, putting it upside down on the drainer, picked his gun belt off the hook inside the front door and fastened it around his hips. "I've got to go to work now, you WILL be ok on your own won't you?" He seemed unsure all of a sudden.

"I'm 17… dad," she smiled at him in reassurance.

"No wild parties while I'm gone." He gave her a crooked grin and she rolled her eyes at him. Both of them knew that even if she had lots of friends in the area she wouldn't be one for wild parties. "See you tonight, I'll finish about 5, want to meet me at the diner?"

"I'd rather cook you dinner," she told him. "Is lasagne OK?"

"Sure, but Bells…"

"I'd like to, honest."

"Ok, see ya!" he left the house, automatically locking the door behind him. Bella rolled her eyes again, he always locked the door, but then left the key under the eaves where anyone could find it. After all, it wasn't likely that anyone in the area would be stupid enough to rob the Chief of Police's house!

She rooted through all the rest of the cupboards, but nothing in them except coffee and a pack of microwave popcorn was in date, in the fridge there was a quart of milk and 48 cans of Rainier beer, she rolled her eyes again and smiled slightly to herself and started to write out a shopping list.

She patted her back pocket to make sure the cash was safe and looked out of the window. She had one coat, and it was a light jacket. If she walked to the shops she would get soaked. She sighed, it was typical of her luck. She wondered if there was a charity shop in town where she could get a decent thick coat at a low price, of course she would have to ask Charlie for the money. She wouldn't dream of just buying something for herself from the cash he had given her. She hated to ask for anything, but was her pride worth freezing to death over? She really should have got some cash out before setting off north, just in case, but things back in Phoenix had come to a head rather suddenly and she could not wait the 30 days to get her money before leaving.

She was startled out of her thoughts by a knock on the front door and she suddenly remembered! "Alice!" she rushed to the door, and remembered that Charlie had locked it only after she tried to pull it open. The key he had given her was on her bedside table upstairs. She turned to go up when she heard the person outside speak.

"Shall I use this key?" Alice asked through the door.

"Yes, if you know where it is!" Bella was astonished that someone new to town would know.

Alice unlocked the door and Bella pulled it open as soon as she heard the bolt of the mortise lock pull back, a huge smile of welcome already on her face.

She stood astounded, her smile turned into a dropped jaw.

"Alice?" she asked, unable to believe her eyes. It wasn't that her friend had changed a lot in the 9 years since they had met, Bella had expected that, no, what was so shocking was that she hadn't changed… at all! Even her clothes were the same ones she had worn the last time Bella had seen her! Bella was also surprised to notice that her friend was tiny, at least a good nine inches shorter than her!

"Bella!" Alice threw her arms around her young friend. Bella could feel the cold even through her thick shirt and she suddenly remembered the same feeling when Mr. Carlisle had put his hand on her shoulder all those years ago. "Breakfast!" Alice held out a paper bag. Bella sort of registered that there were a couple of other bags on the doorstep but she was still processing her friend's appearance.

Without properly knowing what she was doing, Bella took the small bag, opened it and pulled out the bagel and bit into it.

"Alice?" she asked as soon as her mouth was clear of food.

"Bella?" Alice asked in the same tone.

"You haven't changed!"

"I know, why don't we sit down, we have a lot to talk about."

Alice steered her into the living room and to the couch. She quickly brought in the shopping bags and plonked them on the kitchen units and then joined Bella in the living room, carrying an open can of soda which she handed over to her friend.

"But…"

"I know what you're going to say, and yes I know it's impossible, but it isn't really."

"You're 25." Bella bit into the bagel again, only just now registering that it had her favourite fillings.

"Actually Bella, I'm a bit older than 25." Alice knew exactly how this had to go for the outcome she needed. If she had tried to lie or evade the truth their friendship would be in jeopardy, the only path that would bring Bella around in the two weeks they had was to be totally honest.

"How old are you then? Because you look 17… ish." Bella pointed out, thinking now with a 17 year olds eyes that her friend actually could be slightly older than that.

"I'm not exactly sure how old I am, really. I woke up in 1920 in the grounds of a small hospital in Mississippi, if I was 17 then (And Carlisle actually believes I was 19… don't ask me why, it's technical) it means I'd be 107 now, so maybe 109 is more accurate?" Alice told her. Bella stopped chewing the mouthful she was eating and stared. "No I'm not insane Bella, I'm telling you the truth."

Bella swallowed the food noisily, trying to clear her airway as quickly as possible so she could object. She took a swig of her drink to clear her mouth but before she could say anything else Alice spoke again.

"You can come in now." Alice said, not raising her voice at all.

Bella heard the front door open and she turned to face the doorway. "Mr. Carlisle!" She jumped to her feet, he too looked exactly the same as he had.

Bella fainted.


	8. Chapter 8

**Here you will find out where the split with canon occurred. Hope you enjoy.**

8

"You should have broken it a little easier Alice." Bella swam back to the surface of consciousness.

"She's coming around." Alice said and she helped Bella sit upright on the sofa.

"I… I"

She felt her wrist lifted and cold fingers felt her pulse. "Don't rush to get up, you just fainted." Mr. Carlisle said.

Bella nodded, she was familiar with the feeling.

"Mr. Carlisle…"

"Just Carlisle," he corrected gently. "I'm afraid we weren't quite honest back in Phoenix. My name is Carlisle Cullen, and here in Forks I'm a doctor at the ER." Bella's head was swimming.

"Let's start at the start… Bella are you listening?" Alice's cold hand grabbed her friend and the temperature focussed her mind slightly.

"You're cold." She stated rather unnecessarily. "I remember in Phoenix when Mr… when Carlisle…" she paused looking at him and he nodded.

"When I put my hand on your shoulder, yes I thought you had noticed." He said.

"Wow, I…" she looked at Alice again, "109?" Alice nodded, "What anti-aging cream do you use?" both of her visitors laughed.

"Are you ready to hear this?" Alice asked.

"Just go for it." Bella said, Alice smiled knowing this was the correct response.

"I think Carlisle should tell you his story first." Alice said. Her father nodded and sat down on the recliner that Charlie sat in to watch baseball on TV.

"I was born around 1642 or 43, it's a bit hard to be accurate, in London England. I was definitely born during the reign of Charles I. My mother died of childbirth fever when I was born, leaving my father a broken man. My father was puritan vicar… parson, to a small, poor parish near the river Thames just east of the Tower of London. He was a bitter man, his elder brother had inherited a huge estate, but because of bad blood between them he was left with nothing at all. He turned his anger and disappointment into passion for his work. In short he was a zealot, in no way could he be called a nice man, but he was definitely God fearing. He saw enemies of the church everywhere, Catholics for the most part, but the supernatural too, witches, warlocks, daemons, werewolves and vampires. The black death had swept through London in the past few years, taking away my elder brother and his wife and children, which drove my father to even greater depths of despair, he blamed every supernatural spiritual thing for his losses. He made it his mission in life to stamp out such heresies, he would preach fire and damnation from his pulpit until he had the whole congregation roused, and then he would lead them against the forces of Satan." Carlisle paused and Bella was already fascinated by his story, she leant forward, willing him to continue. "Many a poor young woman burnt to death at the hands of my father and his followers. When I was about 23 or 24 my father was already an old man, back then if you were poor and lived to be 45 you were considered very old, I was already considered almost middle aged. My father was no longer physically fit enough to lead 'his people' in the march against evil and he forced me to take up the banner. One day we received a report of vampires living near the river. With fanatic, almost unholy, relish he gathered the usual crowd of zealots, whipped them up into a frenzy and gave them into my hands. I was always uncomfortable with this, I didn't see evil everywhere as my father did, and no matter the so-called evidence I could not condone burning witches that were probably just innocent young women or people who supposedly turned into wolves at the full moon, without proper proof. So I was sceptical about this supposed vampire lair. I was wrong. For probably the first time ever, there actually WERE monsters. As we approached the river bank we caught up with what seemed to be a man. He was tall, pale and seemed to be in pain. When the mob approached, with me in the lead, of course, he shouted out in Latin and ran.

"We gave chase, and even though I now know it should have been impossible, we caught up with him. Five of us cornered him in a blind alley behind a bakery in Pudding Lane. He must have allowed us to get close as I know he could have jumped onto the buildings at either side and escaped easily. Whatever his motive, when we approached him he turned, as any wild animal would, and attacked us. I remember being bitten as he passed to get to the man behind me. He killed all the others and then turned back to me, at that point the rest of the mob arrived, most of them with burning pitch torches, and he fled carrying the body of one of the men. They gave chase, leaving me for dead with the others. I felt fire race through me, I was in excruciating pain. I dragged myself to the base of the nearest wall and fell down a coal chute into a cellar.

"In the far corner of the basement was a root cellar. I buried myself in a pile of potatoes, I still remember the sweet, cloying smell of the mouldering vegetable." Bella was totally captivated now, immersed in the story so much she could almost see it in front of her. "I burned, for almost three days and nights all I did was burn, not realizing that above me a huge portion of London burnt at the same time. I knew what was happening to me, but as much as I did not want to be a vampire, I could not risk shouting out in pain, self preservation instincts kept me silent for most of the time. When the burning stopped, I had a dreadful thirst and I knew that I needed to feed. The scent of humans was almost too much for me, I coated my clothing in the rotting potatoes, overpowering the stench of people and burnt bodies nearby. Remembering the lessons of my father I knew I could not go out in the day, so I waited until night and escaped from the city to the south easily swimming the Thames. There was a royal park there and for several days I managed to stay out of the path of humans. I was so thirsty I thought that if I ever smelled one I would attack without thought, I could feel the animal inside me trying to force me to sate its thirst, tempting me to find someone to kill. After a week I decided that I had had enough. I headed to a clearing and waited for the dawn. You can't imagine how disgusted I was to realize that sunlight did not turn me to dust as my father had preached. So I turned back north, to the river. The Thames was a disgusting cesspool of pollution back then. I sank into the water, determined to drown myself." He laughed and Bella shuddered at the thought of the man in front of her determined to die. "I sat under water for almost an hour before I gave up; even forcing myself to inhale under there didn't effect me. I headed west and eventually came to some rather rugged country and threw myself off a cliff. I landed on my feet at the bottom, shocked that not only had I survived but I wasn't even injured. I found an abandoned village, the residents all having died of the plague, and entered the church, I moved to the altar and embraced the cross, I even tried drinking holy water. Nothing seemed to have an effect and day by day I was getting weaker and more likely to attack the first person I found. I had not eaten since before I was changed. I tried eating human food that I found in the abandoned houses, in the hope that that part of the lore was wrong too, typically it was about the ONLY part that was accurate, an hour after I had eaten some winter stored vegetables, I had to vomit them back up the same way I had the river water before. I tried repeatedly to kill myself, always trying to stay away from humans, until one day, I was in the New Forest, which covered a lot more area than it does now, and a herd of deer passed. My inner animal would be denied no longer and I attacked! As I came to my senses I realized that strength flowed through me again, I looked down, 3 full grown deer lay drained at my feet. I had a solution. I did not have to kill humans; I could live on animal blood!" He smiled and Alice squeezed Bella's hand drawing her attention.

"We all live off animal blood." She said.

"All vampires?" Bella asked, not really believing that she had asked that. But it was obvious to her that what she had believed, and what the two people in front of her believed, had been, up to now, two very different realities.

"No, just our family and a few others." Alice clarified. "Jump to 1918 now," she instructed her father, Bella looked at him, expecting him to say how he had met Alice, she was to be surprised again.

"I was working in a hospital in Chicago in 1918 when the Spanish Influenza struck, it was a terrible time. People came into the hospital faster than we could help them, bodies piled up in the corridors, only the lucky few actually got beds on wards. I remember when Edward Masen was brought in a couple of months into the epidemic. He was a tall, robust looking man in his late thirties, but I could tell straight away that it was already too late for him. His wife and son accompanied him and they sat with him all the way through his illness until, 3 days later, he died. It was about 4 or 5 hours before he died that it became obvious that his wife, Elizabeth Masen had also contracted the illness, when the porters removed her husband from the ward, the nurses immediately put her into the bed he had just died in, there was no room for sentiment. Edward Jnr fell ill only a few hours later. I worked all night, every night, to save each and every person on the wards. It was obvious though, that it was a losing battle from the start. Almost no one who came into the hospital left it alive. Edward Jnr fell into a delirium first. His mother struggled out of bed and sat at his side, sponging his face as she herself got worse. The nurses tried to put her back to bed but she would not leave her son. He was a handsome lad, only just 17 years of age and had everything to live for, but it obviously wasn't to be. On the evening as I did my rounds four days after Edward Snr died, Elizabeth grabbed me by the hand. She looked me directly in the eye and said _"You must do everything in __your__ power. What others cannot do, that is what you must do for my Edward." _I still wonder to this day if she knew I was different. She collapsed and died almost immediately after talking to me. But she gave me an idea, or rather she crystallized one that I had had in the back of my mind for years. You see, I had travelled all over the world in the previous 250 years and had never met another vampire who lived off animal blood. No vampire I had met would even be persuaded to try, and I could not keep company for long with those who slaughtered innocent people for their food when there was another way. I took Elizabeth down to the morgue; there was no one there, no one alive that is. Bodies in shrouds were stacked like cord wood. Thirty or forty in that small room. As I returned to the ward I could hear Edward's breathing labouring, his lungs were almost full and he was drowning in his own body's fluid, it was obvious that he was going to be dead within the hour, if not sooner. I carefully lifted him and wrapped him in a sheet and carried him down to the morgue. I then escaped the hospital with him to my home on the outskirts of the city, where I recreated the wounds that I had received 250 years before. I left him as he started burning and returned to work and finished my shift. There was nothing I could do for anyone there, it was obvious. That night I packed my things and went home, never to return to the hospital.

"Edward awoke after just under 3 days of burning. It was apparent something was wrong immediately. He was almost driven mad by the thoughts of others, that he could hear all the time. My house was on decent sized grounds, and quite remote, I had thought, after all no one had heard him screaming through his transition. But it was not isolated enough. The voices in his head were constantly shouting at him." Bella looked at him, her eyes expressing the question that she could not put voice to. "Some vampires have extra abilities, Edwards was the ability to read people's thoughts, whether they wanted him to or not." Wow, that was… disturbing. She didn't remember Alice mentioning an Edward though; Bella wondered what happened to him. Carlisle carried on with his story, "So as soon as I dared allow him out of the house I put him in my car and we escaped to the north west and into Canada. As soon as he was out of range of people, he seemed to snap out of his daze and I could explain to him what had happened and what he was. We lived in seclusion for a couple of years. He became my son; we grew closer than I had ever imagined being to another person after all those years. Gradually we were able to introduce Edward to people as his thirst and mind allowed until late in 1921… At that time we moved to Wisconsin. Edward was strong and was doing well avoiding the temptation of human blood and had settled in his mind so he wasn't being constantly bombarded with other peoples' thoughts. But still we moved to a small town, I don't know if he could have coped with the numbers in a city.

"Years before I had worked in Ohio, where I had met a young woman. Her name was Esme Platt, she had been a stunning 16 year old back then, who had broken her leg climbing trees," he gave a fond chuckle and Bella joined in, thinking of her own accident prone history. "I had been very attracted to her when I knew her before… more than attracted, if truth be told… only the fact that she had been so young had stopped me trying to turn her back then. I had left her behind to live a normal life; the decision was not without pain. One night in Wisconsin, as I was working the police arrived with a suicide victim for the morgue. The hospital was small and there was no other staff at night except a couple of nurses, so I let the police into the place. I knew as soon as they brought her in that she wasn't dead, though it was obvious that she soon would be, she had severe internal injuries and the blood loss meant that her pulse was almost imperceptible, even to my senses.

"I recognized her immediately, it was Esme. I could not imagine what she was doing there, so far from where she had lived before, and in such a state. However now I had another opportunity and if I did not move swiftly, like with Edward, she would soon die. Again I stole someone from a hospital and bit her. I asked Edward to watch over her as I returned to my shift. I put my notice into the hospital when I got back and by the time Esme had woken, we were ready to set out straight away for the wilds of Canada again."

"It was hard on Edward, after losing both his real parents we had formed a family, just the two of us. Then all of a sudden Esme was there, don't get me wrong, he wasn't jealous! But I had noticed right at the start, that Edward was unsettled staying with us, mated vampires are… affectionate and passionate, to say the least, we also do not tire or need to rest or take food or toilet breaks like humans." Alice grinned wickedly and wiggled her eyebrows at Bella as she blushed violently at the subject, Carlisle carried on as if lecturing a hall of students. "It was worse for Edward than it would have been for almost anyone else, he not only could hear us with his ears, he would get visualizations of what we were doing through our thoughts. Within a month we became fully mated, and one day he went for a hunt and never came back. He left a note in his room saying he could not stand to be around us for a while and needed space, and he just…went. This upset Esme tremendously, she was already thinking of herself as his mother, and she had already lost one son. She believed she had driven him away from the only father he had and she insisted that we look for him. We did look, but it was in vain, however just short of 10 years later he returned, it was obvious that he had not stuck to our diet, but we welcomed him back, just glad that he returned. He had been back less than a month when I came across Rosalie bleeding to death in the street. I immediately thought that she may be a suitable mate for Edward, and rushed to save her. Unfortunately they didn't get on very well… you could say it was loathing at first sight!" both vampires laughed lightly and Bella could not help but smile with them. "Again we moved to the country, but this time we went south to Tennessee rather than Canada like before. Two years later, Rosalie went hunting on her own; she had a great resistance to human blood, probably because she actually resented being changed. Several hours after she left, she arrived back at speed, a broken and bloody man in her arms. Emmett had lost a fight with a bear, and Rose had immediately picked him up and carried him all the way back to us so that I could change him for her. No matter how much she did not wish to be a vampire, she recognized her true mate when she found him and begged me to change him too so they could be together. Luckily we were rather isolated where we were and so we didn't have to move while we waited for Emmett to get over his early bloodlust. However now Edward was on his own, with 2 mated couples in the house. Making it twice as hard for him to feel like he belonged." Carlisle sighed and paused; he looked at Alice and raised an eyebrow.

Bella wondered where all this explanation was going. Why were they telling her? If the Carlisles… Cullens, wanted to avoid her, they wouldn't have moved to Forks. Alice knew years ago that Bella's father lived here and she sometimes visited. No something else was going on, and Bella had a feeling it was to do with Edward, rather than anyone else.

"I awoke in the grounds of a hospital in Perry county Mississippi in 1920 without any memories of being human. I have no idea how I became a vampire nor who my Sire was… a Sire is the vampire that bites you, Carlisle is Emmett, Rosalie, Esme and Edward's Sire…" Alice explained as she went, "The first thing I remember was 'seeing' a face, a man with red eyes, and then flashes of things happening, strange visions of people and places. I wasn't sure at first if they were memories or dreams that I remembered. I accidently killed and drained a gardener as he was trimming the bushes on the grounds and in horror ran away as fast as I could. Even as I moved away from people I could still see these 'flashes'. The first time I realized what was really happening was when I had a flash of a severe storm, lightning shot all around and a huge tree split almost down the middle, sparks shooting off and the undergrowth at the base of the tree catching fire. I saw myself being engulfed in flames and the… vision… stopped, dead. The next day as I made my way further inland I came across a tree that looked exactly like the one I had seen. As I watched lightning flashed across the sky and suddenly with an almighty crash I saw the tree start to split. I didn't wait around for the rest as you can imagine and took to my heels as fast as I could. Several times over the next few weeks things like that happened. The weather visions always came true, but I realized my actions could change the outcome as it affected me. In this way I was able to keep away from hunting parties, and could find food easily just by deciding that I needed to hunt. I could 'SEE' animals as soon as I wanted them and so could head straight to them without having to wait and really 'hunt'.

"I stayed away from all people, not even going near them after my newborn phase ended. I found a little cave in the wilderness and moved in. I would often get visions of certain people, the red eyed man most, but others too. A blond man and his wife. A bronze haired boy. I also saw a young woman being attacked and left for dead in the street, and later the same woman carrying a huge man who was bleeding after losing a fight with a bear. Over time the visions changed, after 1933 the visions of the dying woman stopped, in 1935 the vision of the man and bear stopped. Still the vision of the red eyed man stayed with me. But still, I was quite happy on my own. Then, in 1945, just after the end of the War in Europe, I had another vision. In this vision I saw the man, young, handsome but badly scarred with red eyes, in the vision we were…" Alice paused and grinned, waggling her eyebrows again. Bella blushed. "For 3 months I sat in my cave trying to force the visions of this human eating vampire, to see why I had been shown him like that now, I could not see what had changed to focus the vision, in fact all I could see was either the two of us naked or him walking into what looked like a diner, walking up to me, tipping his hat and speaking.

"I finally decided to look for him, I trusted my visions by this time implacably, they had never let me down. As soon as I decided, of course, the visions came thick and fast and though at the time I didn't realize what they meant fully I knew I had to find him! I would marry this scarred southern gentleman and help heal him of the emotional scars that were even worse than the physical ones I could see. As the vision cleared I could see through the diner windows behind him as he walked towards me, I could see a shop opposite, and on its awning was an address. I immediately started making my way to Philadelphia; I wasn't in a rush because I knew it was winter when the vision would come to pass. I hunted along the way and even paused to steal a few clothes as mine were, by this time, just rags. It took me just over six weeks to walk there.

"I sat in the diner, in the booth that had the best view of the door and ordered a coffee. I sat there every morning until I was in danger of being caught in the sun as it came over the buildings opposite. I was almost about to despair, I had been waiting so long, over four months! But the vision was as strong as ever and I decided to wait just one more week when the door opened and in he walked, he headed straight for me and I said, "You kept me waiting a long time." He tipped his hat like a true southern gentleman and replied "I'm sorry, Ma'am." I gave him my hand and he took it and we walked out of the diner and never looked back." Alice sighed and Bella joined her, it was so romantic! Though Bella was practical to a fault she was also a teenage girl.

"As soon as we got out of town he asked me why my eyes were gold. I explained about the diet of animal blood that I had seen in a vision of a family that lived in the states somewhere and he agreed to try and stop killing humans. Jasper had been changed during the Civil War, and he had known nothing but blood and violence for almost 90 years, as the evil witch that turned him used him to help her in the southern vampire wars!" Alice's voice turned as cold as her hands and it was clear to Bella that she held some hatred for this vampire. "We spent the next two years living in the wilderness, I did my best to help Jasper stick to his new diet and on the whole we succeeded. I knew that if we were to successfully join the Cullens we HAD to conquer his thirst. Eventually he felt he was ready, my vision showed me that the Cullens were living just outside New York at a place called Ithaca, so we headed North."

Alice paused and looked so sad that Bella grabbed her hand trying to convey her willingness to help in any way she could.

"This is where my visions failed me so badly!" Alice's voice choked. Carlisle stood and put a consoling hand on her shoulder.

"It wasn't your fault Alice, you could not have foreseen what was to happen, it was pure accident."

"If I hadn't been so overbearing though…"

"Alice, just tell Bella." He patted her shoulder, his jaw clenched as well as his fists as he moved back to the chair, he looked as sad as Alice did and Bella wondered if Edward had died.

"I had a vision you see, the perfect introduction to the family. I could see everything I needed to do for us to join them successfully. We arrived at the house at midday. Esme was in the garden tending her plants, Carlisle was in his study, and Rose was tuning up one of the cars in the garage. Emmett and Edward were hunting as it was sunny and so they couldn't be at the university as they usually would have been.

"I walked up to Esme and hugged her and introduced myself as her new daughter. I explained that Jasper was my mate and that it would be best if he pretended to be Rose's twin brother. Carlisle and Rose heard me speaking and came to see who was visiting. And that was that. I went into the house and just knew which bedroom would belong to Jasper and me. Oh how I wish I had just waited!"

"What happened Alice?" Bella asked.

"I persuaded Jasper to help me move the things in the room into the garage, so we could start decorating it and putting in extra closet space. Emmett came back first… this was where my vision had changed. He and Edward were supposed to come back together, if that had happened as it should have then everything would have been fine. But it didn't. I hadn't been watching for anything going wrong! I knew what was supposed to happen so well that I never noticed when things went off track. It was just so strange, a series of events that on their own meant nothing, but in the end added up to disaster.

"First that morning, as he ran an errand before the sun rose, someone had bumped into his favourite car while it was parked, they dented the wing and drove off without leaving a note, then the needle on his record player broke so he could not play his records, by the time he found out the sun was out and he could not get to buy a new one that day. Added to which, Emmett had been in one of his teasing moods, winding Edward up all day. When they were off hunting, every time Edward targeted a meal, Emmett would either scare it away or knock Edward over as he prepared to hunt, or jump in and steal it if he could. As they got close to the house they startled a herd of deer and Edward, took the opportunity of being so far in front of his brother and attacked them. Emmett, tired of baiting Edward, came straight home, expecting Rose to have finished in the garage. Which she would have if I had not interrupted them.

"As I had piled Edward's things into the garage, I had left his most precious possessions, the photograph of his parents, a musical jewellery box with a few pieces in, and his mother's best china dinner service, on top of the pile where they were safest. Emmett, hearing Rose still in the garage burst in, knocking the pile of possessions over, not knowing they were there and everything crashed to the floor. The dinner service smashed, of course, the box lid broke off, but worse, the picture was damaged by the glass on the frame and the pottery shards, it was ruined, totally," Alice sobbed, holding her hands out as if begging for forgiveness, "I didn't see it until it was too late! I got to the garage seconds after they fell and just as I picked up the picture, Edward came in! He stood, silently as I, over and over again, apologized, the Cullens gathered in the garage, Jasper as well. I knew exactly how he was going to react but had no chance of trying to change the future.

"He looked at his possessions, then at Jasper, and at me… he looked at everyone in turn then without saying a single word he got into his car and just… left. We haven't seen him since. It wasn't supposed to happen like that! All the visions for YEARS had shown exactly how it should have been… he should have come in, met us, laughed about me moving into his room and then everything would be fine." Another sob broke through her voice and she couldn't carry on.

"It wasn't Alice's fault; no one could have foreseen it happening. Added to which Edward comes home and finds yet another happy mated couple whose thoughts he will have to try and ignore. It was just too much for him. We have tried to find him over the years, but every time we get close he 'hears' us coming and vanishes. The only way we know that he is still alright is that he keeps in touch with another coven of vegetarians who live permanently in Alaska."

"Vegetarians?" Bella wasn't sure she heard right.

"Oh yes, sorry that's what we call vampires who live by eating animals rather than humans. It's a lifestyle choice that goes against our natural diet, like human vegetarians."

"That makes sense I suppose and it saves you being accidently overheard saying that you have given up killing humans for a while I suppose."

Carlisle looked at Bella with pride. He didn't know of anyone else in the world who could have taken the information Bella had been given that morning so calmly. She was showing no signs of shock, which would have been the understandable reaction. She calmly accepted what they said as true but she wasn't delusional. She had weighed what they said against the physical proof of lack of aging in her friend and just absorbed the information given. Alice swore by all that she held holy that Bella would not tell anyone, ever, what she had been told.

"What can I do to help?" Bella asked, "I guess that it wasn't an accident us meeting all those years ago if you can see the future. So what did you see about me?"

Alice continued the story, telling Bella, with a bit of judicious editing, all about her vision years before, how it was so extraordinary for her to have visions of so far in the future and how important it must be. She explained why they met and why Alice had kept in touch all those years. It made a lot of sense to Bella; they had looked after her because they needed her for something. After all it was the only time Renée ever seemed to want her around, when she wanted something. Bella didn't feel used or angry at the Cullen's for wanting to use her, she just accepted that that was the way things worked, in fact she was happy to be of help. However she did need to know what they needed her to do…

"Which brings us to now… here you are in Forks, as far as I can see Edward will be coming through two weeks today. This is where we need your help…"


	9. Chapter 9

9

Sunday Alice came around as soon as lunch finished and helped prepare Bella for her family. She described them all again, this time with proper backgrounds and ages, before bundling her into a low sports car and driving her into the forest north of town.

Bella was amazed when she saw the 'house'; mansion would have been a closer description. She had seen smaller looking hotels in Phoenix! A large lawn led to the house and even though the day was overcast Bella could see it would always be in shadow as huge cedar trees spread their massive branches right over it and to the roof of the house.

She nervously got out of the car and followed a bouncing Alice up the steps to the front door. From what she could see through the huge picture windows the decor inside was mostly white, not a great colour for someone like her. She imagined dirtying the place just by sitting in it. She brushed her sweaty palms on her jeans and grimaced. There was nothing to be done, her clothes were clean if not new, she sighed and nodded to Alice who had paused with the door open. They went inside and up a flight of stairs to a room that looked like it was part of an Ideal Home exhibition. The Cullen family were all waiting in the lounge, looking like a super model convention, each of them fit perfectly into the immaculate surroundings and Bella felt even more self conscious of her clothes and looks than ever.

The first to greet Bella was Esme, she hurried to the girl she already considered her daughter and pulled her into her embrace.

"I am so happy to finally be able to meet you!" she said, Bella looked at her and then at the others, something in the back of her mind rang a bell.

"I'm happy to meet you too." Bella blushed madly as everyone swarmed around her, all wanting to hug and greet her, she had never been physical in any sense, and the lack of close contact from her mother meant she was uneasy with the family's closeness. When Emmett grabbed her and spun her around she stiffened up in discomfort.

Jasper put a calming hand on his brother's arm and made him release her so she could take a breath.

"I can feel how uncomfortable you are Bella, but we have all waited so long for this day, you'll have to forgive us." He told her, giving her a quick squeeze on her shoulder and then retreating back to the far side of the room.

"Jasper?" Carlisle asked.

"I'll be OK," he assured everyone, "it's just that she smells REALLY good."

Bella tried not to sniff herself, but then remembered what Alice and Carlisle had said about their senses being so much better than hers; at least he didn't say she smelled bad!

She looked at the Cullens, in turn, the nagging feeling was still there, it wasn't until Rosalie flicked her hair back over her shoulder that the memory surfaced.

"The 'planes!" she said, "When I used to come to Forks for my holidays… you were on the 'planes with me."

Emmett laughed, "Yeah, we used to take turns looking after you as your mother dumped…" he stopped as Rose slapped him on the back of his head, but Bella knew already, she finished it off for him…

"Dumped me at the airport and let me find my own way… yes I remember. I also remember being 'upgraded' more than once, I suppose that wasn't coincidence?"

"We hope you don't mind our interfering?" Esme asked.

"These last few years, when I worked out how rare it was, I wondered why I had been upgraded so often…" she laughed at her childish notion that maybe her mother had actually paid for the nicer seat in secret, but she didn't share it with the people in front of her. After all this was the same woman who had not even called to make sure she arrived at Charlie's. She was actually embarrassed thinking of the price they must have paid for her tickets to be changed.

"I don't see why you had to sit with the cattle," Rosalie said with a sniff, "After all the price of first class tickets isn't much when you consider we usually use our own private jet when we travel." Bella's mouth fell open. Ok so she knew the family weren't short of cash, the trips abroad that Alice had described over the years (even though… now she thought about it… they had turned out to be fictitious), the top of the range cars she had seen in the open garage when she arrived, the designer clothes they all wore, as well as the house surrounding her were testament to that, but a private jet? That was a bit… extreme.

"Don't worry about it Bella," Alice said, knowing just how uncomfortable Bella was over money. "We have plenty of money to go around… being able to see the future makes making money almost too easy."

"Erm…" Bella had no idea what to say, as someone who had struggled all her life to find enough money to do the food shopping she had a natural reluctance towards waste and extravagance.

"That reminds me!" Alice grabbed her by the hand and with Rosalie and Esme almost dragged her up stairs. They entered a bedroom on the top floor, well, bedroom may be a misnomer, as there was no actual bed, the room was decorated in soft beiges, one wall was made entirely of windows, looking out over the garden, sloping down to one of the many rivers that gave Forks its name. The opposite wall was full of shelves, stacks and stacks of music, vinyl, tape and CD. A huge sound system sat pride of place in the middle of the shelves.

"Wow, that's a LOT of music!" Bella moved closer to try and read some of the album titles. She pressed play on the CD and soft classical music surrounded them. "Clair de Lune!" She heard a small cry and turned to see Esme leave the room. "Did I do something wrong?" Bella asked horrified that she had upset the kind woman who had been so nice to her.

"No, this is Edward's room, he loved playing the piano, that was one of his favourite pieces to play, it had been his human mother's favourite." Rosalie explained.

"We always put that tune in the equipment, waiting for his return." Alice said, sighing.

"I'm sorry!" Bella switched it off quickly. "I didn't realize Edward had ever lived here,"

"It was a long time ago, Alice buys new music for him as it comes out, and we keep everything just the way it was in here when he last lived here. Which was long before Alice and Jasper joined us. We update things, like the sound system as technology progresses, but if he walked in here today he would know it was his room straight away." She sighed and looked at her sister. "Wasn't there something you wanted to show Bella?" she asked.

"Oh yes," Alice seemed to break out of her thoughts and pulled open a huge walk in wardrobe. "I bought some clothes for you," she explained. Bella's face drained of blood as she surveyed the 'closet' that was almost as large as her old room back in Phoenix. More than half the space was taken up with male clothes, these must be Edwards, but the rest were female. She backed away, her hands raised in horror. "Bella, come on, you know I know what's going to happen! You will protest, I know, but the clothes are paid for now and if you don't accept them then it will just be a waste of money."

"Alice NO!" Bella was now bright red. There was nothing wrong with the clothes she had on! They were clean and tidy, if not brand new. She closed the sides of the plaid shirt together as she backed away. "I don't need charity!" she snapped.

Suddenly Esme was in the room again, her cold hands resting comfortingly on Bella's shoulders, not holding her just resting.

"Bella honey, let us do this for you. We know Renée was supposed to send you with enough clothes, and we know she spent the money Charlie sent for you on herself." Bella's eyes closed in mortification. She had often suspected that Charlie sent extra money at times and that Renée had spent it quickly, how very sad that her friends knew all about it.

"I don't NEED them!" Bella was angry, at Renée, at herself; but it came out as angry at the Cullen's. She hated anyone knowing about her life with Renée, about her struggles. After all she had survived and she was fine. There was no use raking over dead coals.

"Please Bella; we were just trying to do something nice for you." Rose said, almost in tears. Bella gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, trying not to say anything that would upset the kind people. She turned on her heel and walked out of the room.

As she made her way downstairs Carlisle stood on the landing, he opened a door and gestured her to enter. She looked in the room; all she could see were books, shelf after shelf of books.

She knew if she left the Cullen house in the temper she was in she could hurt the only friendship she had ever had. She didn't want that to happen. But she really could not accept their charity, and she didn't need their pity!

"Alice was wrong to spend so much on you," Carlisle said as he walked around to the leather chair behind a huge desk piled with medical journals, "we all know how much you value your independence, but she wanted you to fit in with the school better."

Bella lowered her face into her hands and sank into the sofa opposite the desk. "Why bother? I've never fit in before." She asked. Carlisle sighed, he had known that Alice was going about it wrong, but she would not be persuaded. Even after the mistake with Edward she still relied on her visions too much. Not taking into account other people's free will.

"You don't have to take the clothes," he assured her, "Alice is used to getting her own way, and she has this thing about clothes…" he chuckled slightly. Bella looked up at him. As usual he was immaculately dressed, in a white shirt, tie, fawn coloured sweater and fawn trousers, the crease in them razor straight. In fact all of them were smartly dressed, now she thought of it. It wasn't just that they were good looking, their clothes were smart and suited them well too, not designer for the sake of it, but more because they actually looked good. "She spends a small fortune shopping every month, and if you haven't realized it yet, she buys for us all. We rarely wear anything more than once."

Bella's face was a picture of horror. The sheer waste! She had never actually followed fashion herself, but the school she had gone to in Phoenix had been in a very well off area, names like Yves St Laurent, Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choos were commonplace, though she never could see why someone would pay a month's wages for a pair of shoes! Especially the death traps that some of the popular kids at school wore.

"I know," Carlisle assured her, "Honestly I do, but we donate all our 'old' clothing to charity, in a way it helps the local communities that we live in, and Alice doesn't spend a fraction of what she earns on such things." She frowned, he sighed. "Remember Alice sees the future, not just the family's future, but things that will or could affect us. She sees stock market trends and big corporate decisions, she plays the stock market." Bella understood what he was saying, after all what person wouldn't use such a gift to make sure they were comfortable? Just because Alice's version of comfortable was as far above Bella's version as the observation deck on the Empire state building was above ground level… "Last year the Cullen stocks brought in $4.8 million dollars, which was low because of the recession, and that was only the stocks and shares, we have other incomes as well. So don't worry about her spending a few hundred on clothing for you, she really is just trying to be helpful."

"But I don't NEED them!" Bella insisted, worried that she was offending the family, but adamant that they not spend their money on her.

"You DO need a decent winter coat," he reminded her gently, "and a few pairs of jeans extra wouldn't hurt, remember this IS Forks! You will be surprised just how wet the weather is day in and day out at this time of year." She sighed defeated. He was right, she knew this place well enough to realize that hanging the washing out on a line wouldn't happen too often, and she had a natural reluctance to using the dryer.

Bella nodded her head and got to her feet, she hated this! She hated being considered a charity case. But they were right; she was supposed to have more clothing than she had. Just another reason to find a job and quick, she didn't want all her hard earned money being wasted on clothes, that was for college. She dismissed his comment about school, she knew she was going to have to attend for a while, but she had no intention of staying there.

She dragged her feet as she climbed back up two flights of stairs. Alice was sat on a black leather couch near the huge windows.

"I'm sorry," she said before Bella could speak. "I know I get carried away, but I meant well."

Bella just nodded and pulled the smaller girl into a brief hug. "Let's see what there is," she said, "Mind you I'm not promising to take everything, but some of them…"

Alice bounced on the spot, "I know! I know just which ones you will take!" She rushed into the small room and grabbed hanger after hanger, piling them on the couch.

"Alice!" Bella's eyes almost crossed as she tried to follow her friend's movements, she was just too fast. It was making her nauseous. "No, Alice! Too much!" She pulled a couple of pairs of jeans from the pile, some sweaters and a couple of coats, one of which was a heavy duty parka. "This is all I'm taking!" she crossed her arms over the clothing to demonstrate her inflexibility. Alice's face dropped.

"You don't have any underwear!" she pointed out, "or shoes, or skirts!" Bella shuddered. The thought of having someone else buy her underwear was disturbing, but SKIRTS? REALLY? She thought of the many, many times she fell, a skirt was just asking for trouble, at least with a decent pair of jeans she would have some protection for her poor knees, not to mention she wouldn't flash everyone who went past her. No, she hadn't worn a skirt since junior school and she wasn't going to start now!

"Alice…" her voice was deep with warning. The small vampire sighed, defeated, and as quick as a flash the rest of the clothing was put back into their place. She did bring out one extra thing though, a parcel. Bella was about to object when Alice turned it and she could see through the plastic bag. Bella sighed and nodded, knowing that it was one thing she really must accept. She picked up one of the large plastic bags Alice had put on the sofa and put the package into it, then folded the clothes on top.

They made their way downstairs, the rest of the Cullens were in the lounge, and Bella took some time this time, to look around. In the corner, beside the staircase was a grand piano. Though it was dust free and as clean as the rest of the room, she sensed an air of abandonment around the instrument, as if it was a shrine no longer worshipped at. On the wall opposite the piano the biggest flat screen TV she had ever seen, a game was paused on the screen and Emmett and Jasper were sat on the huge leather sofa opposite the screen with controllers for what she believed was an Xbox held loosely in their hands. Rosalie and Esme were sat on another sofa, this one facing the outside world through another wall made entirely of windows. Bella could see from the view that they were directly below Edward's bedroom 2 floors above. The women were reading, Esme a horticultural encyclopaedia, Rosalie an issue of Car and Driver! Carlisle walked downstairs behind them; he patted Bella on the shoulder as he passed. Bella still jumped slightly when anyone touched her, not through fear but rather still not used to physical contact.

"Way to go Bella!" Emmett shouted, jumping up and heading to her, obviously intending to grab her and swing her around again.

"Emmett!" Rosalie's voice stopped him dead. "Leave her alone, she's had enough to deal with today without you mauling her." Emmett's face fell but he retreated back to the sofa.

"I was just going to congratulate her on sticking to her guns and beating Alice!" he grumbled.

Alice huffed and crossed her arms, Jasper nudged Emmett in the ribs and he started and glanced guiltily at the small annoyed pixie.

Bella grinned at him slightly, more because of his childlike behaviour than what he said, and he smiled back, pleased to have cheered her up. She liked Emmett… in fact she liked all of them.

"This is going to be FUN!" Emmett enthused, "I can't wait to see Bella in Gym!"

Bella groaned, of course he would know about her clumsiness, Alice had explained how the Cullens had kept watch over her for years. But wait… Gym?

"I won't be taking Gym!" she told them, "I dropped it two years ago." Alice sighed.

"It's compulsory." She dropped the bad news.

"I don't see why I have to go to school at all, I already graduated!" Bella complained.

"Charlie told you already Bella, Forks has a no early graduation policy, everyone has to attend until the school year they turn 18."

"School year?" Bella was aghast, "that means I have to go for almost two whole school years? That isn't fair! Charlie said I could leave when I turned 18! I have plans!"

"He was wrong, with you turning 18 in September you have the rest of this year and next year to go." Alice winced as Bella let out a moan. "Sorry, Bella."

"It isn't your fault Alice." Bella was pissed that she only just found out. "I just am so tired of school."

Rosalie snorted inelegantly (as if anything she did could be considered inelegant, Bella thought), "Tell me about it! This is the ninth time for me through school, and I had completed my education before I was turned!" Bella was aghast!

"Why do you put yourself through it again and again Rosalie?" she asked.

"Call me Rose," her new friend said. Bella nodded. "The younger we start in a place, the longer we can stay," she explained, shrugging her shoulders, "we have been here a year already, but we knew you were coming, and that you would be more comfortable with Alice in your year, so we made our ages accordingly, usually when we come to a place I pretend to be 16 to start, Emmett and Jasper are usually the same age as me, and Alice a year below us, it gives us more time."

"16?" Bella looked at the beautiful woman in front of her, "How the hell…sorry" she apologized for her language, "how can you pass for 16?" she asked.

"It's a matter of make-up, muscle control, the way we dress, and the way we hold ourselves," Rose slumped in her seat slightly; her face seemed to get rounder and younger. Bella could well believe that she was actually almost the same age, if not younger, than herself. She looked at the other 'children' all seemed to have put on weight slightly around their faces. She was puzzled. Alice and Carlisle had said that when they were 'turned' they were stuck the way they were. How could they change like this? Though really if they didn't change at all year in year out, they would soon be raising suspicions.

"It's mainly the muscle control." Jasper told her, "it takes quite a lot of concentration, but it gives us something to think about," he gave a half grin that made Bella smile back at him. "after all school isn't exactly challenging for us."

"But why go to school in the first place?" she asked.

"It would look strange if a family as large as ours came into the neighbourhood and didn't go to school, if we were to get jobs we would have to have time off every time the sun was out… and there aren't a lot of night jobs in a small town like this." Carlisle explained. "Sometimes we go to places like Ithaca, where the 'children' enrol in the university rather than school, the trick then is to make them look older than their human age." Bella looked at Rose again and saw her straighten up, her carriage and posture now was of a much older, more confident person. She was impressed. "But still, we are limited to about 4 or 5 years in one place, and that is mostly my fault." He admitted.

"Your fault?"

"Yes, I like being a doctor, I like helping people, but I can't be a doctor and my human age, I was too young for what is considered acceptable nowadays, so my ID's have me at 29 when we move to a place, by the time we have been there 5 years it is pushing it, even with 'good genes' I am hard pushed to be 34, that's 10 years older than my true age." He explained. Bella agreed, he definitely didn't look that old. "Also of course, we have to be old enough to 'foster' so many teenagers, even though no foster agency has us on their books, several times people have tried to interfere with the family, citing the fact that it is obvious that Alice and Jasper, and Emmett and Rose are together, yet living as supposed siblings."

"Yeah I suppose that would look strange in a small town, especially if they are supposed to be underage," Bella said, remembering something else, "if you only foster the 'children' why are they all called Cullen?" she asked.

"You're quick." Jasper said, impressed at the way her mind grasped minute details. "Rose and I are usually either called Hale, which was her real name, or Whitlock, which was mine," he explained, "Emmett and Alice are, supposedly, children of one of Carlisle's brothers."

"When Edward returns and we move, he too will be one of our siblings." Alice added.

"But…" Bella tried to sort through her thoughts. "if Jasper and Rose are, brother and sister…"

"Twins," Esme supplied.

"Then shouldn't they sound alike? I mean it's obvious that Jasper is from Texas or somewhere south, and Rose just…isn't."

"I can be, Suga!" Rose put on a very convincing southern accent. "It's obvious to all that Jasper just cannot be bothered to get rid of his accent, whereas I did!"

Wow, there was a lot more to this living forever and blending in with humans than Bella would have ever guessed.

"I can also lose the southern accent if needed." Jasper said, sounding like Rose usually did now.

"So at the moment?" Bella asked.

"Jasper and Rosalie Hale, from New York!" his accent was now definitely one from north New York State.

"Good to know," Bella hoped she didn't give anything away about the family by knowing too much.

"You'll be fine." Alice said, giving her a one armed hug. "We have to get you home." Bella looked out of the house; it was very dark out there. She gasped and looked at her watch, it had stopped, again! "It's ok; the sun sets earlier this far north in winter. It's only just gone 7, but Charlie is home and wondering where you are, do you want to ring him?" she asked holding out a cell phone.

"No, that's ok," Bella said, "I'll see you all tomorrow?" she asked, the three other youngsters nodded. Emmett unpaused the game and Jasper quickly turned back to the screen, accusing his brother of trying to cheat.

Esme walked up to Bella and hugged her briefly, "Come back soon!" she told her.

"I will." Bella promised.

"I'll see you soon too," Carlisle said, he grabbed a bag from the side of the sofa and made his way out of the door. "Got to run, I'm on shift at the hospital this evening."

Bella's head was spinning as Alice dropped her off at her home. She 'accidently' left the bag of clothing in the back of the rather pedestrian saloon that Alice used to take her back, just taking the heavy coat, as she was already wearing it, and she really did need it.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N A great big thanks to all who have reviewed and favourited this story. It's wonderful to get feedback and I'm sorry I don't get around to messaging more of you!**

10

Charlie was pleased as punch that Bella already had friends in town. He knew Dr. Cullen in a professional capacity, and no matter what Billy Black said against the family the kids had never caused trouble since they arrived.

It would also help when Charlie worked weekends if Bella had some company. He knew Jacob had offered to spend time with her, but Charlie wasn't going to make the mistake of forcing people onto his rather introverted daughter. If she made friends with them, fine, but he felt she was old enough to make this kind of decision herself. After all there was no real 'bad' element in Forks. The worst that the kids of the area got into was an occasional party with limited underage drinking.

Bella had mentioned her friend Alice a few times over the years, though Charlie had had the impression that she was quite a bit older than Bella, he was rather surprised when she turned out to be Dr. Cullen's youngest, and the same age as his daughter. But that made it all the better. He had even bought her a computer and got a dial-up internet connection for her so she could keep in touch with her friend… what a happy coincidence that they should have moved into Forks last year! He was also glad that she had decided to move here rather than go to college early, which she certainly could have given her grades and the fact that she graduated the year before. He would start putting more money into her college fund, as he no longer had to pay Renée anything. By the time she graduated again she should be able to go to college comfortably!

(In the Cullen house Alice groaned, she knew trouble was coming. Charlie would be at the bank the second it opened in the morning, he never left things after he had decided, he had to do them as soon as possible. He would find out about Renée using Bella's funds, and there wasn't a thing Alice could do to stop it! Even if she tried to electronically transfer the money he would see, as he would be asking for a statement on the account as soon as he got to a teller. It would have to just play out naturally, after all Renée shouldn't have taken it in the first place!

Alice sighed, turned and nodded her head. Jasper picked up the phone and speed dialled Jenks.

"Tell him it's over." Was all he said, he put the phone down and they both sighed. The worst of the secrets they held from Bella was soon going to come to light, Alice just hoped she would forgive them or everything was in vain.)

Bella ate the pizza that Charlie ordered and, as he settled in to watch a game on the TV, she said goodnight and went to her room. She frowned as she saw the bag with clothes in on her bed, a post-it sticker on the window that faced the side of the house, from Alice read, _'You forgot these!'_ Ahh well, at least she put her foot down!

She opened the bag. The couple of pairs of jeans had turned into five, all designer labels of course. The sweaters, were now also five, the extra coat, the one that was for cold weather rather than for arctic expeditions, was the only one in the bag, thank God, but there were also four tops, three sets of underwear and a skirt! How had Alice got all this into the bag without her seeing?

She picked up the package in the bottom and smiled slightly. She hoped this would work! She put the baseball uniform in the bottom of her wardrobe. One day short of two weeks… and counting.

Charlie woke her early the next morning; she was annoyed to see that snow lay rather thick on the ground, but was pleased to note that sometime over the weekend Charlie had sealed the window frame, so the room was warmer than on Saturday when the temperature outside was higher. She looked at the front of the house, the road running past was white and compressed already by the few tyres that had run along it. A car went past and lost its back end momentarily. Oh this was just asking for trouble! At least she already knew the local ER doctor! Through the other window she could see the trees in the back garden, they looked like something on a Christmas card, pretty but COLD. She had never personally witnessed snow before, only in pictures and on TV, but she already knew she didn't like it at all!

Charlie shouted for her to dress quickly, she looked in the wardrobe and saw the clothes Alice had given her. Charlie shouted again and she picked up her own Walmart jeans and slipped them on. An old T-shirt and her plaid winter shirt went on top and she ran down the stairs. Freezing air hit her like a wall as she saw her father standing at the open door waiting for her.

"What's up?" she asked, she looked past him but could not see any reason out there for him to be shouting her. She stepped gingerly out onto the front step as he walked towards her truck.

"I've put snow chains on your truck," he told her, "you have to know how to take them off if the snow lets up and melts, they tear the road up otherwise and it's against the law to use them when there's no snow or ice on the ground."

She shivered at the reminder of the roads being icy. "Let me get my coat," she ran back into the house and up to her room. She pulled on the parka that was the thickest of the two coats and ran downstairs again, as she put her hands into the pockets she felt something wrapped up, pulling it out she discovered a woolly hat and a pair of thermal gloves all wrapped into a small ball. She smiled guiltily, and silently thanked Alice.

Pulling the gloves on, she made her way gingerly to the truck. Charlie glanced up at her, "I thought you didn't have a winter coat?" he said, "I was going to nip to Newton's this morning for you to get one."

"Alice… and I went shopping yesterday." She lied, making sure she didn't meet his gaze. She had never been a very good liar and she was sure her guilt was written all over her face. Luckily he seemed to have other thoughts in his head and he didn't notice the blush that covered her face with her untruth.

"Do you owe her anything?" he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket.

"I bought it with my own money," she didn't want Charlie to offer to pay for them any more than she wanted to accept them from Alice.

"What money?" he asked.

"I had saved some for a car, but you bought me the truck, I used some of that." She lied again quickly, blushing even more. That was the problem with lies, they didn't stop at just one. Her father looked at her closely, no she really wasn't a very good liar… she again reminded herself to go find the bank and get out some money as soon as possible to pay for her own things. Charlie pulled the last note out of his wallet, a fifty. "Here, you shouldn't spend your own money on essential clothing." He said. Bella groaned internally.

"It's fine dad, honest."

"Bella, take the money." He seemed rather annoyed with her so she did as she was told. Oh Alice was going to hear about this! "Is that enough?" he asked.

"More than enough, you want change." She told him.

"Keep it." He said, "I'm heading to the bank this morning anyway," bending down to the wheels of the truck he proceeded to show her how to hook and unhook the chains if she needed to.

He had just finished hooking the chains back on when his radio and the cruiser started beeping at the same time. He clicked the button and said "Swan" into the small mic.

Bella never worked out how they could understand what people were saying over the police radio. It was all hisses and squawks to her. But her father gave an affirmative and strode over to the cruiser.

"Have to go Bells. You will be OK?"

"Of course I will, Dad," she smiled at him. "I have to leave for school in an hour; I'll just have a shower and some breakfast and go."

"Remember to lock the door as you go in." He said. "Can't be too careful." He got into the cruiser and pulled out. The blue lights flashed as he drove away.

Bella smiled, and then frowned. The fifty dollar note was still in her hand. ALICE! Well Alice would just have to take the money. Bella didn't want it. She would rather accept money from Charlie if she had to accept it from anyone.

She went into the house to get her breakfast and opened the cupboards and groaned. Alice had also brought the shopping; the $60 that Charlie had given her on Saturday was still in her other pair of jeans upstairs. She ran up and got the clothes out of the laundry basket and recovered the money she had forgotten about. She would give Alice it first thing! She reckoned it wouldn't even cover half of what she owed the family, but it was a start.

Bella arrived at school and managed to park in one of the few spots close to the buildings that wasn't reserved for teachers, as she got out of the truck her legs slid from under her and she stiffened up expecting the impact of her rear against the frozen hard floor. A pair of cold hands caught her under her armpits and abruptly stopped her descent.

"Thanks." She gasped.

Rose smiled as she held onto her to make sure she didn't lose her balance again. "No problems, you ok?" she asked.

"Yeah I got it." Bella said, and immediately slipped again. Alice grabbed her arm and hooked it into her own to help her keep her feet. Rose took the other side.

"Where to?" Rose asked.

"The office?" Bella made it a question rather than a statement. The boys fell in behind as they made their way to the edge of the car park. A set of concrete steps climbed the embankment, to Bella that was just asking for trouble. Steep steps, snow, ice and Bella Swan? That was an invitation to the ER right there. The girls hung onto her tightly though and she traversed the death-trap without injury.

A noise made her look around. A tractor and trailer entered the car park and a man got out of the cab and started shovelling sand and salt onto the car park. Bella frowned, why the hell wasn't he gritting the steps first? Her question was answered as a large blue van slid into the school grounds. The driver had obviously not taken the time to put snow chains on his wheels as he slid perilously close to the man shovelling from the back of the trailer. At the last second the caretaker seemed to sense he was in danger and dodged the oncoming vehicle. The van slid sideways until it almost hit Bella's truck, when it shuddered to a halt it was inches from her rear bumper.

The man threw down his shovel and hurried to the van, he could be heard shouting at the unfortunate youth driving it right to the office doors. Bella took note; do not piss off the caretaker.

She pushed open the door and a blast of too warm air hit her, humid and musty but strangely pleasant she looked around the room. Dense foliage covered every surface; some of the plants were even flowering!

"Excuse me?" A woman appeared through the jungle, she was in her forties, plump with bright red hair and a purple t-shirt that was definitely at least two sizes too small for her ample frame and made even Bella feel as if she was overdressed.

"Can I help you?" she asked, looking over the rim of the huge round glasses on the end of her nose.

"Bella Swan?"

"Oh! Yes, of course, I should have recognised you!" Bella almost groaned aloud. She knew she looked slightly like her mother, enough people over the years had told her so. But she knew Renée didn't leave a great impression on the town and Bella would rather be known for her father than her mother.

"This is your schedule and map," the woman said pushing an A4 sheet towards her, "most of your classes are advanced," she looked closer at Bella which made her blush, "not Spanish though… hmmm… this is your attendance slip, you need to get each teacher to sign you in and then bring it back here at the end of the day. Each day has the same lessons, and you switch lessons every semester." Bella nodded. "Do you need any help to find your first class?"

"I've got it Mrs. Cope," Alice said, making the woman jump as she was almost totally hidden behind the biggest aspidistra that Bella had ever seen. Alice hummed a tune as she stroked the leaves of the proto-triffid she was hiding behind and Bella smiled as she recognised the song. Mrs. Middleton had loved the English singer Gracie Fields and Bella joined in humming the song, much to Alice's obvious delight and the confusion of the secretary.

Before they left the office Bella gave Alice the money she owed her. She was pleased to note that even though she didn't look happy about it, she did take it, she guessed that was because Alice had seen that there was no use arguing, Bella was determined she was going to clear her debts.

They exited the office and cold air slammed into Bella. She shivered and pulled the parka tighter around her. She would have frozen to death in her other coat. She squeezed Alice's arm as the pixie wrapped it around her own again as soon as they were outside to help her balance. Alice grinned smugly but said nothing.

"Here, give me that." Rose held out her hand for the time table. Bella handed it over and in seconds she had it back. Rose had written in each box, Bella was pleased to note that she was with at least one Cullen each lesson, which was surprising considering that the elder three were supposedly a year ahead of her. It must be because there were only three hundred and fifty seven students in the entire school (and that was for four years! Her old school in Phoenix had more than seven hundred in her year alone), and only fifteen full time faculty members.

She would not complain though, because this would make it far pleasanter than if she was alone. She wouldn't have to depend on anyone to help her find her way, usually there was at least one over-friendly sort, ready to help the newbie and dying to be their best friend, until they realised she was a rather anti-social and boring person and gave up.

Suddenly Bella noticed the rest of the student body seemed to be stood in the passage between buildings watching her. She blushed as she saw groups whispering rather unsubtly about her.

"Don't worry about them, it's not you, it's us." Alice said. "We have kept to ourselves since we arrived and it's annoying some folk that we have made friends with YOU rather than THEM." Bella could well understand this. After all she was nothing much to look at, and the Cullen's/Hale's were all so good looking and obviously rich. What could they possibly see in her?

The whispers followed them as they went into a building with a huge 3 stuck above the door.

"Stop it Bella!" Rose said, Bella looked at her quizzically. "If we want to make friends with you we can. I'd rather talk to you than this lot any day," she gestured derogatorily to the other pupils, who quickly dispersed to their classrooms. "Come on, English Lit first!" She almost dragged Bella down the hallway. Jasper peeled off shortly but Emmett and Alice stuck by them. As they entered the class Bella could see just 2 tables at the back with no one sat at them. She handed the slip that Mrs. Cope had given her to the teacher. He signed it and grunted at her slightly.

"Find a place to sit." the teacher growled. Alice grinned and dragged Bella to one of the tables at the back. Emmett and Rose took the other table. Bella blushed when she noticed that all the other pupils had turned and were watching her.

The teacher turned and opened the door and pulled a large screen TV into the room. "Today we are going to start watching the 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice. I want a 3 page essay by Friday on the way this film differs from the book." He started the video player, turned off the light and dragged his chair to the rear of the class. Marvellous, her favourite lesson ruined by a teacher who obviously couldn't be bothered to actually teach!

"Face front you lot!" he threw a pencil at one boy who kept turning around to view Bella and then sat down and ignored the class for the rest of the lesson.

The end of lesson bell eventually rang through the classes, but the teacher was actually asleep at the rear of the class!

Rose balled up a scrap of paper and with deadly accuracy landed it in his open mouth. After he stopped choking he stopped the video. "Right, part two tomorrow, you should have enough idea already to start your essay. Class dismissed."

Next on the timetable was Government, oh great, she was always bored during this class, however things were looking up as she realised that the Cullen she was with was Emmett. Alice and Jasper were also in the class, but of course they sat together on the next table.

It was lucky the Cullen's were at the back of the class as Bella almost choked several times when Jasper whispered nasty opinions about the lesson the teacher was teaching. He was covering 'Constitutional Amendments due to the American Civil War' evidently he had a few of his 'facts' wrong and Jasper was itching to correct him. Emmett didn't help as he was constantly trying to bait Jasper by offering alternate, stupid, and just as incorrect 'facts' to the mix and making the Civil War Veteran angrier.

Bella wasn't sure how accurate Emmett was with his additions, but he was funny, almost as funny as the glares of sheer disgust Jasper was sending the oblivious teacher. She was able to ignore the curious looks she received during class from the other pupils and actually enjoyed the lesson, even though she had done the entire subject before (of course).

There was a ten minute break between Gov. and Trig. She had to admit, school wasn't half as bad as she had been dreading.

Emmett wandered off as Rose appeared to join them. Bella told them to go ahead as the lesson was in the next building and just down the corridor. Even she couldn't get lost on the way. She ducked into the bathroom to use the facilities as the Cullen's headed off.

She had just finished and was about to exit the stall when two girls came into the room; it was obvious that they were talking about her straight away.

"I heard her mother was no better than a whore, and Mom says that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Did you see how she was making eyes at Mike?"

"She better not be trying to steal my boyfriend!" the other girl said. "Have you seen the way she sucks up to the Cullen's? It's a pity they don't have better taste. I mean, have you seen what she is wearing? Talk about street people style! She obviously has no sense of fashion and…"

The door to the bathroom opened and the girls fell silent as Alice called out.

"Bella?" Bella flushed the chain and exited the stall. Her face was bright red with anger and embarrassment as she washed her hands. "Oh Bella. I'm so glad you moved to Forks. I missed you!" Alice said. It was obvious that she knew what had been said before. The two girls busied themselves fixing the large amount of makeup on their faces and listened without any pretence of anything else. "It must be almost 9 years since we went to school together, and it's nice having someone at school who we know. Someone worth talking to, instead of this bunch of morons with more hair than brains. I can't tell you how boring some of the girls are here." Alice glared pointedly at the two. One of them looked like she was going to say something in reply but Alice stared her down and they left the bathroom quickly.

"I'm sorry; they decided to come in here at the last second." She apologised.

"They said nothing I haven't heard before." Bella said in a low voice, trying to hide the fact that she was doing her best to keep the tears of anger from spilling out of her eyes. She hated the fact that her temper was directly linked to her tear ducts.

It wasn't just the words the girls had said that was familiar, the tone of voice they used was too. As one of the few poor students in her old school she had frequently been picked on, the difference this time was that they had prejudged her because of her mother. Something that was ultimately unfair. She didn't acknowledge that the trouble at her old school was also predominantly her mother's fault too; if she had spent less on herself and more on her daughter then Bella probably wouldn't have stood out so much and therefore had such a hard time.

"I…"

"Leave it Alice. It doesn't matter." Bella grabbed her bag off the side. She walked into the classroom and took the seat next to Rose. However she had to stand again almost immediately as the teacher made his way into the class.

"You have something for me to sign?" he asked rather nastily. Bella blushed as she got to her feet; she could hear Alice saying something to the others as she moved to the front, _'probably filling them in on the bitches in the bathroom,' _Bella thought.

"Well introduce yourself!" The teacher gestured to the class. Bella blushed even brighter.

"I'm Bella Swan, formally of Phoenix Arizona and I've come to live with my dad." She said hurriedly and walked back to the desk and sat down again. The teacher frowned at her and gestured her back to her feet.

"I'm sure there's more to you than that." He said, obviously delighting in her discomfort.

"Not really," she said and stood silently, looking at her feet and trying to stop blushing violently.

Jasper raised his hand.

"Yes Mr. Hale?" The teacher turned his baleful stare on Jasper.

"May I be excused, I don't feel very well." He said, the teacher frowned and nodded. Jasper hurried out of the classroom.

"Well, sit down then, if you have nothing more to tell us!" he said at last, tired of tormenting her.

"Anyone would think you've never seen a new pupil." A pencil flew out of the teacher's hand and hit the back of the head of one of the pupils, "The front is THIS WAY Mr. Newton!" the boy turned sullenly and faced the teacher. It was the same boy that Mr. Mason, the English Lit teacher had thrown a pencil at. Bella almost giggled at the vision she suddenly had of the boy with pencils sticking out all over his head.

A couple of the boys in class hid laughs too but Bella noticed that one girl in particular was glaring at her. Bella realised she was one of the two in the bathroom. The other girl was nowhere to be seen in the class. Rose glared at the girl until she turned away.

Suddenly a note appeared on the desk in front of her. She had not seen anyone move to put it there, but there it was. The handwriting was an immaculate copperplate.

_'That is Lauren Mallory, she and Jessica Stanley are the local Bikes, nasty pieces of work steer clear! R'_

_'As if she had to tell me that after what I have heard!'_ Bella had no intention of making herself likable in the town. After all if things did go according to plan she wouldn't be there for very long. She realised as she looked at her text book that even in Trig, a subject she hated, she knew all the answers. This would just be unendurable for 2 years!

She would help the Cullens and then think again about College.

She would regret leaving Charlie again so soon after moving in with him. It was obvious to her that he was thrilled to have her 'home' at last, even if he was not the most demonstrative person. As she also was rather closed about her emotions she could read behind the mask. It had been evident right from the start that Charlie was quite a lonely man. He had never started another family, and there were no hints of females in his house, except the few photos of Bella through the years and a couple of Renée.

However she knew that he would adapt, he had before. Only the presence of Alice in Forks had persuaded her to move to Washington in the first place.

_'Boooring… by the way I think Newton the Newt fancies you… yuck! R'_

The note said. Bella didn't know whether to smile or frown at the note, which one was Newton? Oh yes the one the teacher threw a pencil at. He was a chubby faced blond boy; even if Bella hadn't just made up her mind she was leaving, she wouldn't be interested in him. He looked too young. Not the way the Cullen's looked young, but it was more a lack of character in his face that put her off.

However Rose was right about one thing, he did keep turning around and trying to catch her eye. She shielded her face from him by allowing her hair to fall straight down. And tried to look busy with her work.

Another note appeared, _'if he keeps swinging on his chair like that trying to see you he may have an accident. A'_

Bella had no sooner read the note when suddenly a crash resounded through the room. "How many times do I have to tell you not to swing on your chair like that Newton? FACE FRONT!" the teacher shouted at the unfortunate boy. Alice sniggered under her breath. Jasper chose that second to come back into the room.

_'Thanks! B'_ Bella wrote, not certain how she was to pass the message on, but it disappeared before she could risk being caught and _'think nothing of it, A'_ appeared on her desk.

She had never had anyone in class to talk to before and even though the lesson itself was boring she still enjoyed it. As soon as the bell rang they made their way to Spanish. This was a subject that Bella was quite poor at compared to all the others as her previous high school had had French as the major second language for some inexplicable reason. It didn't make sense, learning French while close to Mexico and Spanish near Canada, someone on the education boards needed Geography lessons!

She wasn't surprised when she found that Alice was the only Cullen with her. As she wasn't in the AP group she couldn't expect the 'seniors' to be in the class. They sat together again, but this class, unlike the last, wasn't as strictly governed. The teacher seemed to be a nice enough woman, and she was very patient when Bella gave a French answer rather than Spanish, but she seemed to be the type of teacher that couldn't make the students concentrate and so a lot of the time Bella could feel the eyes of the other pupils on her. It made her very uncomfortable, but she put her head down and tried to ignore everyone.

Everyone filed out of the room, there was just one more class before lunch. Bella looked at her timetable. ART? She didn't remember art being on her chosen list of classes.

"Compulsory," Alice told her before she asked. "Well, there is a choice at the start of the year, but they have shoved you in art as it's the one with the least pupils." The only Cullen on the paper was Emmett. She smiled at the thought of the huge man in an art studio. Maybe in a smock with a French beret?

"What do you all have?" she asked.

"I have fashion design and sewing, Jasper has graphic design and Rose has auto maintenance." Bella looked at the immaculate Rose. She remembered Alice and Carlisle saying that she had been fixing a car the day Edward left but hadn't made the connection. She realised she had stereotyped Rose as 'typical' beautiful female, well as typical as a vampire can be, and hadn't expected her to be doing something so… dirty.

Emmett bounced up to her and grabbed her into a hug, the other three moved off to their classes.

"Just me and you squirt!" he said swinging her around. Bella couldn't help but laugh at his antics, even though she was still uncomfortable with his forever grabbing her. It was at this point that Lauren exited the classroom, being the last out. She scowled at them and tried to 'accidently' bump into Bella, but Emmett still had hold of her and swung her out of the way. Emmett was obviously filled in on what the girls had said in the bathroom. "Good grief, does she have to wear so much perfume?" Emmett asked in a loud voice as the two of them followed her down the corridor as they headed to the art studio, "if she got that little problem seen to she wouldn't need to cover the smell up."

Several students laughed or choked trying not to. Lauren turned, a vicious scowl on her face. She was obviously about to say something cutting when Rose arrived back at their side. She stood and stared down Lauren once more. It was obvious that there was history of some type between them. And Lauren definitely was intimidated by the beautiful blonde.

She huffed and turned, storming away down the corridor. Rose slapped Emmett on the back of the head.

"What was that for?" he asked aggrieved. "She was giving Bella grief earlier!"

"Did you ask Bella if she wanted your help?" Rose asked. They both looked at Bella, but she had no idea what to say. She would rather they didn't cause any problems over her, she could cope with the nasty bitches, she had her whole life, but on the other hand it felt… good, warm, nice… to be protected by someone who did it because they cared for you, even if they only cared because they wanted something.

"Any time today Mr. Cullen!" The art teacher, Miss Russell was stood in the corridor, a pile of art folders in her arms.

"Sorry Miss." Emmett dragged Bella to the classroom and Rose walked off in the opposite direction. "This is the new student, Bella Swan." He introduced her.

"Get along inside then you two." The teacher said, inclining her head to the door. Emmett held it open for the teacher to pass and after she had put the folders down she held out her hand for the attendance slip. She signed it using one of the several pens that she had stuck in the messy bun on the back of her head and looked at Bella rather closely. "Do you want to introduce yourself?" she asked in an almost whisper.

Bella blushed bright red and shook her head frantically. The teacher nodded. "Go sit down then." She said kindly. Bella moved to the desk with Emmett.

"Why is she sitting next to the Cullen freak?" she heard someone say from behind her. "There's loads of space, she doesn't have to sit with any of them if she doesn't want. I think it's disgusting, sucking up to them just because they are rich!"

"Leave her alone, if she wants to make friends with the Cullens, let her, I think it's nice that someone does."

"Lots of us TRIED, if you remember Angela! They wanted nothing to do with us." The bitterness in the voice surprised Bella. She could see Emmett smile as he looked forward to the teacher, still sorting the files on her desk.

"Well I think it's nice of the Cullens to look out for her, it must be hard changing school so late, and they know the feeling, after all they have only been here a while themselves."

"Well I don't see what all the fuss is about with the new girl anyway." The first girl said. "It isn't as if she is pretty or anything, but look at the boys, all drooling." The voice was sharper now and Bella recognised it as the person who was talking to Lauren in the bathrooms earlier. Didn't Rose say she was called Jessica or something?

"I think she is pretty," Angela stated almost too quietly for Bella to hear. Emmett nodded and grinned to himself. Bella blushed again and at that second the teacher turned to the class and from seemingly nowhere produced the most horrid, ugly, twisted vase.

"Shade, light and dark, contrast! This is today's subject…"


End file.
